Bossier Schools rolls out new bus alert system

BOSSIER CITY, LA (KSLA) - As the new semester starts back for students in Bossier Parish, the school district is rolling out a new app for parents about their school buses.

The app will notify parents when their child’s bus is running more than 15 minutes late.

“We get a lot of phone calls every morning,” said CDL Operator Manager Theresa Giles. "Parents are very concerned when buses are delayed and this is the best way through social media, and through apps to be able to let our parents know what’s going on and keep them aware. "

Giles admits bus drivers didn’t have a system in place to let parents know if buses were late in the past.

“If the school had a remind (app) already they would notify a lot of times but as far as transportation being able to push out anything, there was not availability,” she said.

And it’s something most parents noticed.

“Very frequently our bus will be late and there’s no communication about it, and we’ll be standing out in the cold for 30 to 45 minutes," said parent Liz Borschowa.

"It’s just that lack of communication, " said parent Henry Castro. “I know from time to time things happen and they might be late for whatever reason, and if we know we can make the necessary adjustments.”

But for parents like Borschowa and others they are just glad this new system will allow them to find out more information about their children’s school bus.

“I think it’s great if it works...like if people utilize it the way it’s suppose to be utilized,” she said. “Our biggest problem was that the bus driver didn’t tell them, so the schools and the parish system didn’t know that the bus driver was going to be late. So as long as that’s utilized then I think it’s great.”

“The more we know, the more we can be ready,” said parent Julie Raring. “To have the knowledge (that) it will be 15 minutes late or they are running late, they’ll be fantastic.”

There are three ways parents can get into the system to be notified.

Parents can receive text notifications by texting their child’s specific school bus access code to 81010 or they can send a blank email to accesscode@mail.remind.com that will respond with more instructions.

You can also click here to download the remind app to get notifications as well.

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