Community Education

Badges will allow parents, district to monitor students on buses

Peninsula School District is beta testing a badge scanning system that will enable the transportation staff and parents to monitor the location of students riding buses.

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Students at Swift Water Elementary will receive their badges on the first day of school. The district will roll out badges to all other schools during the year.

Students will learn to swipe their badges with their student ID number when boarding and exiting the bus. The system allows the district’s transportation department to track when and where a student gets on and off the bus.

The district, in a social media post, calls the badges “golden tickets to a safer bus journey. No more worries — parents and school staff can now keep tabs on each child’s bus adventure, ensuring a secure commute from start to finish.”

App lets parents track bus riders

Managing the badges will be a new task for students. In the past, only high school students had ID cards, but they weren’t connected to any bus tracking system.

The district encourages students who can’t walk or bike to school to ride the bus as it makes for less traffic in and out of school parking lots.

Swift Water Elementary kindergarten students practice using their new bus badges during Kindergarten Jumpstart. Photo courtesy Peninsula School District

Parents who download the MyRide K-12 app will be able to track their own student. The app uses GPS geolocating to show bus stop location, route, pick-up time and arrivals. It works with all mobile devices. Parents must input their student’s ID number and birth date to access tracking information.

“The MyRide Parent App allows parents to engage with PSD’s bus routing software and see their student’s bus information such as when their students boarded the bus and which stop their students exited the bus,” said district spokeswoman Danielle Chastaine. “It will also notify parents and (administrators) in case of an incident involving a school bus.”

No app, no problem

Parents who are unable to use the app due to lack of a smartphone or poor internet connectivity can contact the district to confirm tracking information on their student.

“Our transportation team will have access to this information at all times if a parent has a need arise,” Chastaine said.

Students will swipe their badges on this reader as they enter and exit school buses. Photo courtesy Peninsula School District

The district will continue to send parent updates by text and email in the event of a delay in pick-up or drop-off times, no app required.

For student safety, the district no longer posts publicly available bus route information on its website. Parents can look up their student’s bus route by accessing the web-based portal on the district’s transportation page.

Parents must create an account and provide their student’s ID number and birthdate. Contact the district office at (360) 530-1000 for technical support or questions.

System rollout was delayed

Plans to start using the new technology were in place four years ago. COVID-19 and changes in leadership in the transportation department stalled implementation of the system.

“PSD is finally able to roll the program out this year thanks to the work of our new Transportation Director Dawnett Wright and Superintendent (Krestin) Bahr’s office,” Chastaine said.

The district installed the tracking equipment and software four years ago, using money from the Transportation Operation Fund. That fund received a roughly $2 million boost from the district’s operations levy approved by voters in February.

The district chose Swift Water to pilot the new system because it has the smallest number of bus riders — many students ride or walk to school. That means fewer would be affected if there the district experiences issues with the system at the start, Chastaine said.

Bus drivers needed

The ongoing nationwide school bus driver shortage has not abated and continues to affect Peninsula School District.

“We are continuing to offer paid training for qualified applicants,” Chastaine said. “Anyone interested can visit our website for more information and to apply.

Swift Water Elementary incoming kindergartners line up to practice using their new badges during Kindergarten Jumpstart. Photo courtesy Peninsula School District