New Haven Public Schools launched an app Monday to help parents track their children’s school bus.
The FirstView app allows parents to monitor their child’s bus 15 minutes from arrival and five minutes after the bus leaves. It also gives them direct access to the school bus route.
Betsy Ross Magnet School piloted the FirstView app over the last few weeks to help keep families informed about bus delays.
Superintendent Iline Tracey said serious bus delays of 45 minutes or more will still be reported to parents by email or text.
“And there will be occasional glitches in cases when a bus GPS unit is malfunctioning for example. But parents who use the app will have much better information than they currently have," Tracey said.
Carl Jackson, the district’s transportation director, said the app received mixed reviews during the pilot program over the last few weeks.
“There is an 888 number that parents should use to let the customer service center for this app know that it's not working so that they can go back and replay the route and fix it for the next day,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the app has helped him to troubleshoot issues with routes directly with bus drivers.
