As the GM of Busology Tech, also known as Busology, I long recognized that parents are the real school bus customers. I’m a parent, and when my kids were younger, making sure they got safely to and from school was very important. My kids have grown up into young adults now, but I still remember the anxiety as my kids got on the bus for the first time. Would they be safe? Would they get on the right bus to come home and get off at the right stop? Those days are over, replaced by all the other worries parents have about their kids.
Parents hold a lot of sway in most school districts, and when they band together on an issue—they are heard loud and clear by administrators. Connecting with this all-important stakeholder, and making sure parents are always on your side, is essential for any school district. So how do you win over parents and get their help to make your school bus program safer and more efficient?
Spoiler alert: it’s equal parts understanding, communication, and technology.
Parents Care Deeply About Their Children’s Safety
This is obvious to all parents and caregivers, but our children’s safety and well-being are things that keep us up at night. Is my child okay? Are they doing well in school? Are they happy? Is there more I could do?
When you add to that, “Is my child getting to and from school safely?” it can become overwhelming. This fall there was a rash of kids as young as three getting on the wrong bus after school and no one at the school knew where the kids were for hours. I cannot imagine a more frightening few hours than not knowing where my kids were, and if they were safe.
When you hear about kids getting on the wrong bus or left on buses before or after school, your heart drops. In many places, the winters are cold. And a child left on a bus during winter is a big deal. It’s something that turns a community upside down until the child is back safe at home. So, when we talk about Busology Tech and how we take safety seriously, you know there are parents behind those words.
Parents Are Your Strongest Voices For More Support and Funding
Parents can be your biggest champions for getting you more funding or the biggest thorn in your side when school bus operations aren’t going to plan. Parents want their kids to be safe on the bus. And if they feel something isn’t going right, you’re going to hear about it.
But what might seem like a curse is really a blessing. It’s something you, as school administrators and districts, can use to galvanize support for investments in buses, technology, people, and training. Here are two scenarios that illustrate how Busology Tech can help solve real challenges and be seen by parents as supportive of their concerns.
Tap On, Tap Off The Bus For Safety
If you’ve ever done drop off or pick up at an elementary school, you know it defines “semi-controlled chaos.” It’s easy to see how a child could accidentally—especially at the beginning of the school year—get on the wrong bus. Due to the driver shortage, bus drivers are still getting to know their routes, who is on their bus, and where they live. They also often must manage multiple routes on the same day. As a result, they might not always realize if they have an extra passenger they shouldn’t or are missing a passenger. Teachers are supposed to help make sure kids get to the right bus, but at the end of the day, with dozens of kids rushing around, it’s easy to see how that could go wrong.
Busology offers smartphone apps and an electronic check-in called our Parent App, so parents know exactly when their child gets on/off the bus in the morning and afternoon. If something goes wrong, this kind of smart tracking reduces phone calls between schools and parents that start with, “My child didn’t get off the bus at their stop. Where is my child!?!”
Apps and smart RFID cards that have kids tap a reader getting on and off the bus can alert a driver that someone might not be where they are supposed to be and gives a trackable record of who got on which bus and when. It can even help with the inevitable play date confusion when a child thinks their parents know they are going to a friend’s house after school, gets on a different bus, not knowing the panic that will soon ensue.
Smart tracking apps give parents, teachers, and drivers a way to see who got on a bus and who got off the bus. Tracking and logs give virtual headcounts to reduce the chance a child gets on the wrong bus, gets off at the wrong stop, or is accidentally left on the bus at the end the day.
No technology can keep kids from being kids and occasionally going astray, but it can certainly give everyone more peace of mind.
Better Route Planning Means Happier Parents
Planning bus routes is a true headache. No one is ever happy. Kids have to walk too far to the bus stop. Kids spend too long on the bus before and after school. They have to get to the stop so early and don’t get home until late.
These are common complaints from parents about the school bus and routes. There are two ways to deal with this. One is to patiently listen and then tell parents there’s nothing that can be done. The routes are the routes. Or you can take a more engaged and proactive approach.
You can talk with parents about what goes into planning the routes each year. How the district is growing faster than you can get new buses and drivers. How it takes your planners most of the summer to plan next fall’s route—but those routes can’t be finalized until the school year starts because you’re never exactly sure how many kids you have and where.
Then you become allies. You need more resources to improve student transportation. You’re at the bottom of the budget barrel right when you’re needed most. And you point parents at the people who need to hear their concerns. From the superintendent or city council or legislators, if enough people demand something better for their kids, eventually, something will change.
But only if you present yourself as being on their side.
An incident where a driver got lost on their route and out of touch with bus operations had parents calling the police to find the bus with their kids and the kids getting off the bus four and a half hours late. Driving any bus is hard, but driving a school bus is all that much harder because your passengers can be a little more unruly than your typical public transit riders. And as drivers are learning new routes or new areas, it’s easy to see how someone could get lost. Adding GPS and communications technologies onto school buses—just like public transit buses have—could have avoided the entire incident and let operations get a driver out to the stranded bus quickly and easily.
Great Communication Is Essential
Parents want updates about their kids, and the best way to win over parents is to give them ample updates about buses, routes, and changes. Parents want to know about:
- Route changes
- Where stops are
- When should my child be at the stop
- How long will they be on the bus
- Who do I call about questions
- How will I know my kid is okay
For kids taking the bus for the first time, especially younger kids in K-5, sending extra information about taking the bus and even having a “get to know your bus and driver” nights will help allay fears—from kids and parents.
You can send all this via email, post on your website, and even the mail to make sure all parents have the information they need. And if you live in a diverse community, ensure all the materials are translated into as many languages as possible.
Busology Tech Is Committed To Safer, Technology-enabled School Transportation
Busology Tech grew out of Trapeze and TripSpark to offer dedicated and tailored solutions for school districts of all sizes. Our solutions cover everything from route planning, workforce management, mobile apps, asset management/maintenance, and communications solutions for parents, administrators, and drivers.
As parents, we’re committed to making sure kids get to and from school safely. That routes are planned to make the best use of resources, drivers are well trained, and your entire fleet is well maintained. For almost two decades, Busology has led the way in school transportation. It’s driven by our passion. It’s driven by our depth of experience. And most of all, it’s driven because we love our kids.
Click here to learn more about Busology Tech.