Yukon Schools Looking To Invest In School Bus Tracker App

One of the many popular iPhone apps is called Friend Finder, but what about school bus finder?

Tuesday, February 4th 2014, 7:20 pm

By: News 9


One of the many popular iPhone apps is called Friend Finder, but what about school bus finder? Yukon Schools may look into technology that when kids step onto the bus, parents can track every turn.

Three years ago, Yukon schools launched a pilot program to gain more traction with its school buses.

"With them able to track, they know exactly where the bus is," Sarah Julian, with Yukon Public Schools, said.

Equipped with four portable GPS devices, Yukon school officials are able to locate every turn and see if the bus is late, early or stalled.

"We want to provide information to our parents as quickly as possible," Julian said.

Now parents could be in the driver's seat for that information.

What if the school bus GPS can connect to a smart phone app, and that app can connect to parents, so mom and dad can track the bus from stop to stop.

"It would be nice to know if it's running late, if my son's not home...where's he at," Yukon parents Kerri and Roger Moore said. 

When the Moores aren't making pizzas at Mama Mo's on a winter day, the parents of two have their own winter weather concerns.

"If it's stuck somewhere, and he's in the cold for 15-20 minutes, we'd like to know where it's at," Moore said.

Even though the apps exist, the room in the budget doesn't exist for Yukon when estimating substantial costs to outfit all of the buses and the application fee.

"We would like to provide it if we could," Julian added.

Still, the Moores look forward to the possibilities, even if they are farther down the road.

"Especially the ones who live further out from the school who are more on the rural roads," Moore said.

Currently there are two apps being used by other schools across the nation, "School Bus" and "Where's Our School Bus?"

We also spoke to a few other school districts who have GPS systems in buses. Edmond is the only other district exploring the potential of using the tracking apps.

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