The school bus has been for decades a safe and reliable means to get students to and from school.  As technology evolves, so does the possibilities for leveraging this equipment on our school buses to make them even safer.  The advancement of camera technology is now to a point where the resolution is of such high quality that it can be used on school buses to capture vehicles that are illegally passing the school bus when the stop arm is out and motorist are required to stop.  The benefit to these stop arm cameras is that over time the general population will come to understand that passing a school bus with its lights and arm activated will be an expensive mistake.  The camera itself will snap a picture of the front or rear license plate only when it detects the stop arm is extended.

Another technology that has been around for awhile but only recently deployed on school buses is the use of GPS.  This technology allows the school bus company to know where exactly their bus is in real time.  This technology will soon be available to our school communities so that you can see exactly ‘where’s my bus’  in real time.  Keep an eye out on your portal profile for another tab to show up that will allow you to access this service.  With the introduction of GPS we are also investigating the use of RFID cards so that we can ensure students are entering and leaving the correct bus.  This integration of technology does take some time so please keep an eye out for news releases from the transportation unit.

Do you know of other technology that will help safe guard our students?  Let us know.