NYC school buses to have GPS tracking

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - New York City’s Department of Education is working to make the beginning of the new school year go smoothly by teaming up with ride-sharing company Via to create an app that will track nearly 10,000 of the city’s school buses.

“The DoE has promised to have a GPS on every single school bus in our city so parents will be able to call I and know where the bus is if that bus isn’t there,” said New York City councilman Ben Kallos. 

Kallos suggested the move after a sudden storm last fall stranded some students on school buses for hours as frantic parents clogged phone lines demanding and not receiving answers about their children’s locations. 

“This is more just for parents and children and families to make sure they know where their kids are, because New York City traffic is a beast, and we need to be able to know where those buses are when something goes wrong,” Kallos said.

The program does not start until after Labor Day but parents can find out now by going online and finding their child’s school bus route.