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Routing Software Helps Rural Indiana School District Locate Students When They Go Missing From The Bus Stop

 

Written by Art Gissendaner
School Transportation News – August 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Rosa, transportation director at Wa-Nee Community Schools in Indiana, and district Superintendent Joe Sabo, stand in front of projected map of school bus route using the Infofinder mobile app, which is accessible anywhere there is a Internet connection. Rosa said Sabo has been extremely supportive of GPS for identifying and implementing bus-routing efficiencies. Photo - School Transportation News

 

Shortly after Amy Rosa became director of transportation of Wa-Nee Community Schools in the rural community of Nappanee, Ind., in 2007, one of her worst fears became a reality.  It was a cold winter morning, and not only was a two-hour weather delay playing havoc with her bus schedule; a distraught mother reported her daughter missing from her bus stop.

 

The child was unaware of a delay to that day’s start of school and went to the bus stop expecting her bus to be there.  It wasn’t anywhere in sight, and the child wasn’t, either.

“You could see her footprints in the snow and the direction they were heading away from home,” Rosa recalled.  “That was disturbing.”

 

Rosa followed procedure, immediately called the police and involved the child’s principal.  Then she did something else.  Rosa returned to her office and did her best Sherlock Holmes impression with the benefit of some 21^st Century technology.

 

“I used my Transfinder software,” Rosa said.

 

She plotted a radius from the girl’s home with Transfinder’s Routefinder Pro.  The routing software integrates with district-wide student information systems and can be used for attendance zone planning.  Then Rosa used the Infofinder le application to identify students within the radius who were of the same age and in the same class.

 

Rosa called those students asking if they knew the missing girl, and luckily she was soon found.  The student had decided to go to a friend’s house to wait out the delay instead of returning home.

 

“We were able to find her in 30 minutes,” Rosa said. “In the old days, we would not have had that information at our fingertips.”

 

Rosa now defines the “old days” in student transportation as anything before 2006, when she returned to the district after a five-year hiatus.  She was a bus driver for Wa-Nee from 1997 to 2001.

 

“When I returned to Wa-Nee, we did not have centralized data and, consequently, no student transportation data in electronic form,” she said. “My first priority was to acquire software that would help us route more efficiently, track student information more effectively and communicate route details more accurately to parents, schools and bus drivers.”

 

A similar situation happened last year when a child got off the bus at her scheduled stop but decided to go to a friend’s house instead of her home.  That incident also was resolved within 30 minutes.

 

“Thirty minutes is a long time for a parent looking for their child,” Rosa added.  “In both cases, the students made choices to do something different than normal.  We used the software to help the parent locate the student.”

 

Rosa said the biggest advantage of the software package is the ability to share information and plan bus routes.

 

“We route more efficiently, so we save money, Rosa said.  “We are able to gather and share student specific information more effectively, so we keep students safer.  The more we know about students, their transportation needs, medical needs, special service needs and neighborhood concerns, the safer the transportation we can provide.”

 

Since the Routefinder Pro was obtained, student transportation is much more manageable for the district. And the Infofinder le enables the sharing of critical student information among those who need to know it, such as bus drivers, teachers, secretaries, administrators, parents, and students. “Everyone involved in the student’s transportation is better informed,” Rosa said.  “When people are informed, student safety is improved.

 

The district recently obtained the Infofinder mobile, so now Rosa and all of administration can access student information wherever there is an Internet connection.

 

“I feel so much more comfortable having that data at my fingertips, helping me speed up response times,” Rosa concluded.