The School District of Lee County has installed Student Ridership terminals on its buses, which are used to scan a child's ID once they got on and off a bus relaying immediate tracking information. The scanner will flash red if the child is not on the correct bus, or gets off at the wrong stop. PHOTO PROVIDED

Parents now have immediate tracking of what time their child gets on and off a school bus, the bus stop where they exit, as well as the bus number through a new Student Ridership terminal, which was installed on the School District of Lee County buses.

“We are excited about the possibilities and security it is going to offer to parents,” District spokesperson Rob Spicker said.

The terminals were installed as another safety measure for students, parents and the district, as it allows immediate tracking to determine where the student is through the WheresTheBus parent app.

“As they board the bus, they scan that card through the scanner. It beeps and shows the driver on a terminal on the other side, the student’s name and identifies if the student is on the correct bus,” Spicker said.

He said the terminal will flash red if the student gets on the wrong bus, and off at the wrong bus stop.

When the bus reaches the student’s stop, the student has to scan their card again as they exit the school bus, which again identifies if the student is getting off at the correct bus stop. The parent will be notified of the time they were dropped off at the stop.

“We were never able to allow a parent to track the substitute bus,” he said as they did not have the manpower to manage the undertaking. “If you are concerned about something, you can say ‘I am worried about my child on bus 222.’ We can, through the master end, pull up the records of when (the ID card was scanned) and know exactly where (the student got off at a bus stop.)”

Another scenario would be if a bus breaks down and students are placed on another bus, parents will now have the new bus number and what time the child boards the bus.

Spicker said the new system will give families a peace of mind and security, as they have real time knowledge of which students are on which bus and when they get on and off the bus.

In order to receive these notifications, parents must register for the WheresTheBus parent app, which utilizes their child’s school ID. There is information about the app, as well as the registration process at wheresthebus.com.

The first couple of days of school, the WheresTheBus app has been spotty as there has been an overload of log-ins. Spicker said the app only goes down for a short period of time, which as of Monday was being worked on and fixed.