Bay City Public Schools roll out new bus tracking app

From ABC12.com / By Sheryl Coonan / Aug 23, 2024

BAY CITY, Mich. (WJRT) – With the school year off and running for many Mid-Michigan students, ABC12 is also going back to school this week!

We visited Bay City Public School District, and they have a brand-new way parents can track their kids’ bus routes and ensure kids get to and from school safely.

The district said the effort will offer more safety and communication.

Bay City Public Schools Director of Transportation Bobbie Wolicki showed us Stopfinder.

Stopfinder is an app that parents can download, create a profile and receive real-time updates on their child’s bus.

Students will scan their unique pass on a tablet at the front of the bus.

“So, with the app, students will have a bus pass, something similar to these,” Bobbie Wolicki, Director of Transportation said.

We got a look at Stopfinder and the passes, which are about the size of a driver’s license.

“It’s a safety measure so we know exactly who is on the bus at all times and it will also help with kindergarten and younger students that mistakenly get on the wrong bus, we’ll know right away they don’t belong on that bus,” she said.

Parents will be able to watch their child’s bus from their phones at all times.

They can also set alerts to their liking, to be alerted when it is a mile or two miles away from the bus stop, for example.

“I am a helicopter parent, so I feel great. I track my child everywhere. So, this is one more app that I can watch and make sure she’s getting where she needs to go safely,” Teaa Rathburn said.

Rathburn is a parent of a sixth grader in Bay City Public Schools and is also a dispatcher and bus driver in the district — so she sees the benefit from both perspectives.

She said Stopfinder will help alleviate confusion for both parents and students when they substitute buses.

“Not last year but the year before we got a lot of calls about missing buses and stuff so this will be really helpful to know if anything is happening with the buses,” she said.

Superintendent Stephen Bigelow said the district is committed to ensuring the safety and security of their students and that implementing Stopfinder is a key step in the district’s efforts to enhance communication and safety for all families in the district.