Pender County Schools debuts bus tracking app

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — “Here comes the bus!” That’s the name of a new app Pender County Schools will roll out Monday.

The app allows parents to track their child’s bus to and from school. It makes catching the bus for school easier than ever before.

“The fact that a parent can now know when a bus is arriving at their house to pick up their kid and know when it’s arriving in the afternoon to drop off their kid, it gives them peace mind,” school spokesman Alex Riley said.

Each bus will now have an iPad with an individualized route. Each parent can also now track their child’s bus when they download the app straight to their phone.

Transportation Director Brandon Smith says each bus driver will clock in and see and ETA for each stop on their route.

“So they selected it and choose finish, so this is the afternoon route that they’re going to run,” Smith said. “So this is our driver’s high school route.”

Parents can choose a radius up to two miles around their child’s stop. You can track the bus in the morning and afternoon.

Smith says they will get a notification when the bus enters that zone.

“Once the child has been dropped off at home, the parent no longer sees the bus route,” Smith said.

He says this keeps children safe because the bus cannot be tracked constantly.

Riley shares his favorite feature of the app.

“It’s that messaging feature, that we can get the information that we need out in a timely, quick manner and really target who we need to target,” he said.

Now, the school can also message parents on a particular bus if there’s a problem.

The app aims to make the daily bus ride easier on everyone.

“If we can eliminate a kid having to stand outside for extra time,” Riley said. “Give them a couple extra minutes of sleep. Keep them in the house where it’s warm and dry. That’s definitely an added bonus. That’s what we kind of feel like this does.”

Riley says they have been testing the app at Penderlea School.

Parents can start downloading it and signing up with their child’s Power School code starting Friday.