SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Mohonasen Central School District will be using Traversa 360, an app that tracks the location of your child’s school bus, beginning this academic year.

Randy Jerreld, Transportation Director for the district, said the app will make catching the bus easier, safer and eliminate some challenges the district has seen with the bus driver shortage.

“That will be a real nice thing for parents especially with winter coming on,” Jerreld said. “They don’t want to be outside too long waiting for a bus that might be late so they’ll actually get an ETA of when the bus will be at the stop.” 

The app provides real-time updates on the bus route, location and proximity to where you are. It also sends notifications about changes to your route — making it easier for parents and the school to adapt to ongoing changes throughout the academic year.

“We’ll be able to communicate,” Jerreld said. “Say a bus breaks down, has a mechanical problem, we’ll be able to send those notices right out to those families on that bus and be very targeted.” 

Jerreld said the app will also be a tool to help the district adapt to challenges with the bus driver shortage and help them appeal to new drivers.

“We’ll have tablets on the buses and I think that’s going to help getting drivers because it is a little intimidating going on runs in a strange place,” Jerreld said. “This way they have a tablet with step by step directions which will help them run more on a schedule too.” 

The tablets will be installed on all buses beginning in November and allow parents to see the location in real-time. Parents have the ability to sign up for the app now. Nearly 300 families have enrolled so far.