NYC’s School Bus Tracking App

By Kami-Leigh Agard

Six years ago in this very same month, September 2019, I penned a column in support of NYC Council legislation requiring the Department of Education (DOE) Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) to provide parents and school officials with access to the real-time GPS location of a child’s bus via a School Bus Tracking App. Unbeknownst to me, a parent of a special education student, five years after City Council passed the legislation in January 2019, (by the way, also fully supported by Rockaway’s then councilman, Eric Ulrich), the app has been up and running citywide as of January this year. Why didn’t OPT, the DOE or my daughter’s school communicate this critical information with parents?

Just last Thursday, my daughter did not arrive home from school until after 6 p.m.! Even more incredibly, after wearing out the floorboards from pacing up and down, wondering what could be the delay, when the bus finally arrived, the driver had the nerve to frankly state that my daughter would no longer be allowed on the bus route due to her disruptive behavior. That’s a topic for another column, so before I digress, here’s the 411 on NYC School Bus Tracking App.

As stated in a January 2024 article in Chalkbeat: “NYC rolls out long-awaited school bus tracking app,” “The long-awaited school bus GPS app developed in partnership with rideshare company, Via, allows caregivers of the roughly 150,000 students who ride a school bus every day to track their kids’ vehicles in real time. The sprawling school bus system, which serves tens of thousands of students with disabilities, often subjects students to hours-long rides, delays, and no-show buses. In the past, parents often had to repeatedly call bus companies to track down missing buses.”

The five-year, $36 million contract with Via was announced by the DOE in summer 2019. They said at the time the app would roll out citywide in the 2020-21 school year. COVID cramped those plans, but even after the full return of in-person learning in fall 2021, it took two-and-a-half more years to get the app up and running citywide.

However, now that the app is finally here, here are the caveats as detailed by Chalkbeat:

First, the app only works if drivers sign up for the program—and currently about 25% of the city’s bus drivers aren’t signed up, according to officials. If your child’s bus driver isn’t subscribed, contact the bus company. Drivers are required to sign up and can be fined if they don’t.

Another obstacle is that the app requires a New York City Schools Account (NYCSA). For the tens of thousands of charter and private school students, like my daughter who attends a private school in Manhattan and also rides city school buses, signing up for a NYCSA is difficult or even impossible.

A 2022 Education Department manual said private school students are “ineligible” for the accounts, and that charter school students can get one but have to go through a more onerous process.

We too lost access to our NYCSA after transferring our nonverbal daughter with autism to a private school when after three years attending a DOE District 75 school, she suddenly lost her speech, had lackluster ADL (activities of daily living) skills, and still couldn’t use a pencil to trace the letters of her name. (Note that I’m not blaming the school. However, as parents, we all pursue every avenue to help our children).

Here’s how to access the NYC School Bus Tracking App:

1. Families will first need access to their NYCSA and have their student’s ID number. If families don’t have an NYCSA account, they can learn how to get started online or by contacting their school.
2. Once you have an NYCSA account, download the NYC School Bus App from the Apple and Google Play stores. The correct app was created by Via Transportation Inc., and the icon has a yellow school bus with NYC Department of Education in writing.
3. Log in to the app with your NYCSA account.
4. Select the child you’d like to track.
5. Follow your child’s bus. The app will show the real-time location of the bus and provide notifications about your child’s boarding and exiting the bus. If your child’s bus does not appear, the driver has not yet logged in to the app.

For more info, visit: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/transportation/transportation-overview/whats-new/nyc-school-bus-app