NYC Parents Can Soon Track School Buses With GPS System

NEW YORK — New York City parents will soon be able to track their kids' trip to school thanks to a partnership between the Department of Education and a ride-hailing company.

The DOE plans to equip school buses with a GPS system provided by Via, one of the city's major ride-hailing firms, that will give families updates on their student's ride, the department announced Wednesday.

Parents will have access to a mobile app that will show the location and ridership of their child's bus along with route changes and delays, the DOE said. Bus drivers will use a tablet that will give turn-by-turn directions, while school staffers will be able to monitor the whole transportation system online, according to the department.

Every bus will have GPS capability by the first day of school on Sept. 5 and installation of the Via system will start on a rolling basis this school year, the DOE said.

"Safe and reliable transportation is critical for all families, and we’re committed to getting it right this year," Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said in a statement.

The City Council passed a bill in January requiring the DOE's Office of Pupil Transportation to provide real-time GPS bus tracking after delays plagued student riders at the start of the last school year.

Data compiled by the council showed that delayed buses ran an average of 28.1 minutes late in September 2018, and a girl in Queens was reportedly driven around for four hours before she was dropped off at the wrong stop.

The DOE says it contracts with about 60 bus vendors each year to transport roughly 150,000 kids on 9,000 routes. Some 6,000 of those routes serving special education students are already equipped with GPS technology, the department says.

In addition to providing real-time updates, the Via platform will put all bus information into one system that will make it easier to track and share, according to the department.

"I commend the Department of Education for installing GPS technology on school buses, which is an important step towards ensuring safety for our school children," council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a statement. "The Council will continue to hold the Office of Pupil Transportation and the Department of Education accountable for getting students to and from school safely."

The DOE says parents got bus route information more than two weeks in advance of the school year for the first time ever. It has also restructured its Office of Pupil Transportation and developed a "Bill of Rights and Transportation Guide" that will be distributed to families, officials said.