Parents of Waukegan Community District 60 students can now know precisely where their children are while they are on their way to or from school on the bus, and when they will arrive at the stop nearest home.
Using Stopfinder, the new District 60 tracking app on their phone or computer, Alicia Williams, the district’s manager of transportation and child nutrition, said parents can know precisely where their child’s bus is at all times that it is operating.
Williams said Stopfinder is new this year, replacing an app that did not track buses in real time. Looking at the image on their phone or computer screen, a parent can actually see the bus moving, as well as getting the time of arrival at a designated stop or school.
“You can track the bus and see exactly where your child’s bus is at any time,” Williams said. “It’s a better tool to know your child’s whereabouts, and to know when they will be dropped off or picked up. The app shows the bus moving or at a stop.”
Stopfinder began tracking District 60’s 450 bus routes on Sept. 22 throughout Waukegan, allowing families to know exactly when their child will get on the bus, arrive at school or arrive at the assigned stop after school.
As of Friday, Nick Alatzakis, the district’s communications director, said in a text that 745 families were using Stopfinder. With 450 bus routes transporting students at the district’s 15 elementary schools, five middle schools and three high school campuses, the new app is a valuable tool for families, he said.
Though plans for Stopfinder were made long before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security started Operation Midway Blitz on Sept. 5 seeking people illegally in the country, Superintendent Theresa Plascencia said in an email it can potentially give some families a measure of comfort.
“We haven’t routinely heard concerns from parents about children waiting at bus stops, though it has been mentioned occasionally at some of our schools,” she said in the email. “We are certainly mindful of this issue and know that weather and safety are always important considerations for families.”
Primarily, Plascencia said Stopfinder is designed to help parents know where their children are on their journey to and from school. It is designed to reduce wait times at bus stops, and give parents a clearer picture of the bus’s whereabouts.
“The app will give parents real-time updates and a more precise window of when to expect the school bus in the morning and afternoon,” she said. “We believe this will provide families with greater peace of mind.”
Williams said people who want to download Stopfinder should send an email following the instructions on the district’s website. They will receive a link to provide the necessary information.
While using Stopfinder, Williams said people are able to ask the app to let them know when the bus is five or 10 minutes away. They can also program it for multiple children in the event, for example, one child is at an elementary school and another at a middle school.