KENT, Wash. – As students head back to school after the holiday break, one of largest school districts in Washington is rolling out new technology on school buses.
Kent School District is installing GPS tracking devices on their entire fleet. It will allow the district to know the exact location of all their buses, how fast the buses are traveling, and which students are on the bus. The district received a $50,000 grant from Seattle-based Zonar for this new system.
With Zonar tracking, Kent School District is able to track all 140 school buses in real-time. Another feature is students swipe an ID card when they get on and off the bus so the district knows exactly which student is on each bus. A driving factor behind this tracking device was an incident where a kindergartener was mistakenly dropped off at the wrong stop blocks away from home and was missing for hours. District officials hope to prevent another situation like that.
"You're getting between 2.5 and 3 million trips every year. We have to be safe on every one of those. Every one of those has to be a safe experience. We have to know where every kid is," said Chris Loftis, Kent School District Communications Director.
The Zonar tracking can also help with maintenance and inspections. It can remotely detect and flag mechanical problems and track arrival times to better improve driver performance and efficiency.
