HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Hillsborough County Public Schools has launched a new bus tracking app called "Here Comes the Bus".
The app uses real-time GPS location tracking and parents will also get notified once their child’s bus has left school and once it is within a set distance of their bus stop.
Kimberly Lasher said her daughter rides the bus to and from school every week and that sometimes the bus is late to pick her daughter up or delayed when it drops her off.
“The issues we have experienced with the bus this year began the first week of school,” she said.
Lasher said she hopes the app will not only ease her mind but also make things more convenient.
“Having the app will be very helpful because I have to take my other two kids to school as well so it will be nice to know if I have time to drop the little ones off at school before I drop her off at her bus stop,” she said.
The Hillsborough County school district has 82,000 students that ride the bus to school each day. District officials said that launching this app is aimed at improving safety for students and helping out parents.
In February 2023, the district plans to launch phase two of the app, which will allow parents to be notified when their child gets on and off the bus. The app will monitor this by providing students with ridership identification cards that will be swiped when they hop on and off the bus.