MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — The Manatee County School District will now offer the WheresTheBus app to provide parents with timely information about the location of their child’s bus, including when it will arrive at their stop.
The app is updated every 15 seconds and displays real-time information. Students will swipe the ID cards they currently use to buy school lunches when they get on and off the bus, allowing parents to track where their kids are at all times.
Lee County and Collier County also use the WheresTheBus app and found it useful. However, some parents say they encountered problems with it in the beginning of the school year.
Some parents say the “WheresTheBus” app is working just fine while others say it’s not. The Lee County School District says to be patient the first few months of school while they workout the issues. FULL STORY: https://t.co/8RmxV4NstT pic.twitter.com/rcntD5jwmD
— Jillian Hartmann (@JHartmann_TV) August 14, 2018
In 2018, Lee County School District Spokesperson Rob Spicker said when they tested out the app, they only had about a dozen buses and 50 users. At the beginning of the school year, the numbers jumped to 750 buses with about 4,000 users. On top of that, he says there were 800 requests for route changes the day before school started, creating some issues.
The WheresTheBus app is free to Manatee County School District families whose children ride the bus.
The app is available on any device with Internet access (smartphone, tablet or personal computer) and takes less than five minutes to install.
If you have any questions about bus transportation, please call the school district at (941) 782-1BUS (1287).
