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App Gives Real-Time Updates of School Bus Locations

Virginia's Newport News Public Schools is testing the application at five of its schools, now allowing parents to confirm when a bus has arrived at a stop or school.

(TNS) — It won't help get the kids ready and out the door any faster, but at least parents now have some idea if they have a fighting chance of making the school bus.

Virginia's Newport News Public Schools is testing at five of its schools a new application that allows tracking of school buses online. It is linked to the GPS systems used on the buses and allows viewing of the real-time location of buses on a smartphone, tablet or computer, according to NNPS spokeswoman Michelle Price.

"We just think it's a good tool to help parents manage their lives, so they know when buses are coming," said NNPS Director of Transportation Shay Coates.

The app, called Here Comes the Bus, is now available to students and parents at Woodside High School, Booker T. Washington Middle School, Hilton Elementary School, and Watkins and Denbigh early childhood centers. Synovia Solutions, which makes the GPS tracking technology that NNPS uses for its bus fleet, developed the app.

"With Here Comes the Bus, you can send your child to the bus stop at just the right time, helping to avoid missed buses or long waits in freezing temperatures, pouring rain, the hot sun, strong winds or rush-hour traffic," according to Synovia Solutions' website.

An account number for the school district and specific student ID number for the student are required to access the information.

Parents can see the location of their child's bus before and after school and confirm that the bus arrived at the stop or school. Parents can also sign up to receive push notifications on iPhone and Android phones, or receive an email, when the bus is a certain distance from the bus stop.

The website will always be free to access, but the Android and Apple apps are free only during the testing phase through June 16, according to Price. After that, if it is made available district-wide, there will be a charge for the app.

The app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, and is available in English, Spanish and French.

The pilot program will end with a parent survey, which will help determine if the school district decides to proceed with full implementation, Coates said. If they do, it will become available to all parents and guardians on July 1.

"They can give us feedback on how it works, what features do you think it should have, did you find it helpful, is it easy to use?" Coates said.

An expected benefit of the app is fewer calls to the transportation center, Coates said. He estimates the center receives about a hundred calls a day about the status of buses.

"It also will help us with kindergarten," Coates said. "We use a card system where a person has to have a card to get a student off the bus. It will cut down on us taking kids back to school because parents were not there."

©2015 the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.