When New York City's public school system rolled out its NY School Bus App in January, officials said it would give families "peace of mind" by letting them follow students' bus trips in real time. Ten months later, the tool has reached only a fraction of the families it was built for.
Around 19,000 of 145,000 families, roughly 13%, are using the app. Some of those who have signed up say they still cannot find their children's buses. "It's simply not functioning as intended," parent Adriana Alicea told a recent City Council hearing on school bus service. "This is not just an inconvenience. It's a safety issue."
The path to the app has been long and rocky, stretching across several mayoral administrations. In 2019, the head of the school bus system was fired after the Special Commissioner of Investigation, the schools watchdog, accused her of mismanaging an earlier $8.6 million attempt to install GPS on buses. The city then signed a $36 million contract with the rideshare company Via to build a user-friendly app.
Families who deal with unpredictable bus schedules and long commutes hoped the launch would at least tell them when a bus was on its way. Advocates say that has not been the experience for everyone. Some parents have trouble logging in, which requires a New York City Schools account and a student ID number.
"There are families that call us that need help, especially non-English-speaking parents," said Lori Podvesker, a director at INCLUDEnyc, a nonprofit serving young people with disabilities. She added that many parents are unaware the app exists. Parents of students who ride buses to private special education programs have also been unsure whether they can use it, although officials say they are eligible.
At the hearing, John Benson, deputy executive director of the education department's Office of Pupil Transportation, said every school bus is now equipped with technology that can communicate with the app. He acknowledged, however, that drivers must also sign in for the system to work, and some have not done so. More than 80% of drivers have turned the technology on, he said, though it was unclear whether they log in consistently each day.
The agency is now holding "corrective action meetings" with bus companies to bring the remaining drivers into compliance. "A driver's equipment [used to be] a set of keys and a bus," Benson said. "Now it's also a cellphone and a username and password." Chalkbeat New York has reported that use of the app was part of lengthy negotiations last year with the union representing school bus drivers.
In a statement, education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said the agency is working to expand and improve GPS service while running one of the largest bus fleets in the world. "We are proud to serve over 145,000 students via more than 9,000 routes every school day," she said. "Every student and family deserve the support and resources they need to safely travel to and from school each day."
Podvesker said the performance should be stronger given the time and money invested. "In this day and age, there is no reason for parents to not know where their kids are," she said.
