COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — College Station Independent School District has launched a new system that allows parents to track their child's bus rides in real-time, providing peace of mind for families who rely on district transportation.
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The district recently adopted StopFinder, an app that lets parents see when their kids get on and off the bus, track live routes, and receive alerts when buses are delayed or running late.
"There's always those unknowns that happen during the school day when kids are going to school and coming home. This eliminates a lot of that," College Station ISD parent, Austin Dunson, said.
The system works through a simple scanning process. Students use their passes to tap a transmitter when boarding and exiting the bus, which logs the time and location on the driver's tablet.
"Every morning they have their pass. They go ahead and board the bus and right here at their transmitter, they just tap that and it goes onto their tablet saying that they're here, what time they got on, and when they get to school, they actually tap when they exit and it shows that they got off the bus," Director of Transportation for College Station ISD, Shannon Calltharp said.
Calltharp tells 15 ABC the technology provides reassurance for parents.
"I think it's great just reassurance for the parents to know, hey, my kid did get on the bus and my student did get to school safely," she said.
For parents like Dunson, the app represents an additional layer of safety and communication from the district.
"As a parent, it's a lot of peace of mind for me," he said. "It gives us a good gauge for the safety of our kids knowing that they're being well taken care of on the bus as they travel to and from school. It's just adding another layer to what we're able to do here in CSISD," he added.
Calltharp expects the impact to be positive across the community.
"I think it's gonna be really positive. Like I said, just having that parental reassurance that you know that your student got on and off safely and that they're being taken care of by their school district, I think that's just wonderful all the way around," she said.
The StopFinder app is available to all parents of College Station ISD bus riders.
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