How Technology Is Improving The School Bus Experience for Students with Disabilities
Improving Services for Children with Special Needs
How Technology Is Improving The School Bus Experience for Students with Disabilities
Presented By Zūm Services, Inc.
• Parents and guardians need to stay informed about their child’ s ride, along with accurate ETAs and notifications when the school bus is approaching and when their child has been safely picked up or dropped off.
• Drivers need specific instructions to meet the unique needs of each student, so that even a substitute driver is able to greet each child by name and ensure safe transport.
• School and district administrators need access to real-time information for all routes arriving to and departing their campus. They also need tools that are easy to use, role-based, and make it simple to manage, monitor, and optimize transportation.
“ This technology allows us to be more responsive and efficient than ever before,” says James Lash, Executive Director of Transportation and Fleet Management Services for Virginia Beach City Public Schools.“ With real-time tracking and dynamic routing, we are better equipped to ensure safe and on-time rides for our students, even when unexpected challenges arise.”
In student transportation, consistency is key: Ensuring all children have safe, reliable, efficient, and comfortable rides to and from school sets them up for a positive day in the classroom – and gives their parents peace of mind.
This is particularly true when transporting students with disabilities.
“ For all of these kids, routine is so important,” says Jenny Moore, a mother of two in San Francisco. Moore’ s fifth-grade son, who has special needs, relies on the school bus to get to school each day. Along with a reliable and friendly driver, Moore says using a technology platform to track the bus has been a game-changer for her family.“ I can show him,‘ Look, this is where( bus driver) Hilda is. Consistency truly sets him up for success for the school day,” she says.“ It has been a wonderful experience.” Delivering best-in-class student transportation requires well-trained and caring drivers; safe, high-quality school buses and equipment; and efficient, effective communication and protocols. But, as families, drivers, and schools will attest, accurate data and an integrated technology platform are also pivotal in ensuring today’ s students, especially those with differing abilities, receive top-notch student transportation.
‘ A student-centric, design-thinking approach’ The optimal technology platform addresses everyone’ s needs and is developed with deep, firsthand experience in student transportation operations and management. Ultimately, the platform makes everyone’ s day-to-day job easier and more efficient and improves safety, communication, and transparency. Effective transportation for ALL students requires a studentcentric and design-thinking approach that keeps each stakeholder’ s needs in mind:
• Students need and deserve a safe, predictable, and comfortable ride to and from school and other activities to support their academic, personal, and social-emotional growth and well-being.
A modern era of student transportation Technology that provides access to accurate, real-time information and allows for seamless communication is critical. It allows all students, in particular those with special transportation requirements, to know what to expect. It gives drivers access to critical information to ensure safe care, and allows parents and school / district administrators to view ride details in real time. Tech-enabled student transportation also eliminates a flood of phone calls from parents to schools, schools to the district office, and the district office to transportation dispatch, followed by radio communication between dispatch and drivers – all trying to determine the location of a bus or student.“ Recently I spoke with a parent who told me that, when her school district adopted a technology platform, it changed her family’ s lives overnight,” recalls Vivek Garg, COO at Zum.“ She’ d have her son ready to go, and then the bus wouldn’ t arrive. They didn’ t know where it was, or if it was coming at all,” Garg adds.“ Her son would become so upset that it was nearly impossible to calm him back down. On top of that, she had no visibility into when the bus got to school safely.” With robust, real-time data and a turnkey solution that improves safety, communication, and efficiency from start to finish, the school bus experience becomes safer, more predictable, and more enjoyable. Data and feedback – including allowing parents to rate every ride – can be used to make quick, iterative decisions that continuously improve performance and service quality.“ Now with Zum’ s technology, the mother told me that school days are now much happier and more manageable for her son – and for her,” Garg says. Because the school bus is an extension of the classroom, deploying an integrated technology platform has multiple benefits in student transportation. Above all, it provides consistency, communication and critical information, to transporters and parents; it allows all children, those with disabilities and their non-disabled peers, to arrive at their destinations safely, on time and ready to learn.
26 | SCHOOL-BUSRIDE. COM | APRIL 2025