Polk County School Board to consider buying and testing school bus tracking technology

POLK COUNTY, Fla. - If you've ever had a child get on the wrong school bus or off at the wrong bus stop, you know how scary that can be. 

The Polk County School Board may buy and test new technology to help prevent that.

Under the agreement with Reaxium, Polk County students would get an ID card they would scan on and off a school bus. The technology would allow district staff to know who's on the bus in real time and if there's a mix-up.

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"If a child who's trying to get on a bus that's not their bus, it'll let the driver know, red flag, there's a red flag here," said Rob Davis, Assistant Superintendent of Support Services. The bus driver will get them to the right school bus." 

The district would launch the pilot program first in their center schools with ten buses which the district superintendent says includes some of their most fragile students.

"If there's a group of students, we wanted to really prioritize this with, it should be our special needs students who have significant physical impairments or cognitive disabilities but in addition to that, it should be our pre-k and kindergarten students," said Frederick Heid, Superintendent of Polk County Public Schools.

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"The mobile app for parents is going to be a game changer," said Justin Sharpless, board member of District 6.

For parents, a mobile app will let them see when the school bus is close to the bus stop, the time their child logs on and off the bus, and bus route information.  

Lastly, the program, which would cost more than $900,000 would also help monitor student ridership electronically which is currently being done manually. This data is important for state transportation funding.

 "It will alleviate all overtime and it will bring the hours down tremendously," said Davis. 

If the pilot is a success, then the company could have it up and running for the next school year. 

The school board will vote on the agreement at Tuesday's 5 p.m. meeting.