Q&A
Parent communication app for school bus tracking
1:47:04
·
3 min
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the parent communication app for bus tracking, including language accessibility and usage data. John Benson provides details on the app's functionality and adoption rates.
- The app is available in multiple languages based on the user's phone settings
- Current data shows 19,000 unique parent logins since the start of the school year
- There have been 57,000 total downloads since the app was first made available in 2021
- Outreach efforts include direct emails to parents and information on the DOE website
- The department aims to reach 150,000 downloads and logins
Rita Joseph
1:47:04
So it's a app every single parent across New York City have this app on their phone.
1:47:10
How about for parents who English is not their first language?
1:47:12
What type of support do you provide for those parents?
John Benson
1:47:15
So I believe the app based on the language the phone is set to, the parent's individual phone, it will it will show up in that language.
Rita Joseph
1:47:23
Oh, really?
1:47:24
How do you capture data?
1:47:25
What is the data telling you so far?
John Benson
1:47:28
Data is telling me, we have some survey results that just came in last week.
1:47:31
I don't have the results of them yet.
1:47:33
I'm actually actually get my hands on that.
1:47:34
We can share the results of that with you.
Rita Joseph
1:47:36
No big hearing.
John Benson
1:47:37
But the big thing is making sure the drivers are logging in.
1:47:40
Because the the driver has to log in for the route to become visible to the parent.
1:47:44
Okay.
1:47:44
That's the big metric we're focused on.
1:47:46
We're getting closer to a 100%, and, you know, that that's the real critical metric.
1:47:52
I'm also looking at parent downloads and logins.
1:47:54
I wanna wanna see a 150,000 people downloading and logging in.
1:47:58
We're not there yet, but
Rita Joseph
1:47:59
Where are you now?
John Benson
1:48:00
We're at about hold on one second.
1:48:05
I know I said it before.
1:48:07
19,000 logins since the start of the school year, successful.
1:48:11
That's unique parents, 19,000.
1:48:13
And since the beginning of time, 57,000 downloads from since we put in the App Store in 2000 21.
Rita Joseph
1:48:20
And how do you what's the outreach for those parents who have not downloaded the app yet?
John Benson
1:48:27
So what we did for the start of the school year, we did an email to every single parent of the busing population.
1:48:32
Using our Everbridge platform.
1:48:33
So we have the contact information for all our busing parents in our system.
1:48:37
We did a direct email to all of them.
1:48:40
There's also information on our website as well.
Rita Joseph
1:48:42
What if I don't have access to website or computer?
1:48:46
What's the alternative?
1:48:49
Speak I get text messages from my kid whenever something happened.
1:48:52
Is that an option that's being used for parents who download the app?
John Benson
1:48:57
I would say the best point of contact for that is the school.
1:48:59
If they need support or they they don't have the technology to use via or they they need they have questions and ongoing support that's driven by the transportation coordinator at the school level with support again from our transportation liaisons here in OPT.
Rita Joseph
1:49:14
What about your drivers?
1:49:15
You said not.
1:49:16
Sometimes they don't log in.
1:49:17
What type of training or reminders?
1:49:18
Is there a reminder that you have to log in in order to capture data in real time?
John Benson
1:49:23
So Mister Sarkis, to my left, sends a daily email to all the bus companies about their subscription.
1:49:28
With their percentages.
1:49:29
There are corrective action meetings beginning October 1st with the companies that are struggling with this.
Rita Joseph
1:49:35
Okay.
1:49:36
So
Julie Won
1:49:39
just so that we have it on record by November 1st, we will be in full compliance by local law 32 with the stipulation that the bus drivers have to log on.
1:49:50
Correct?
John Benson
1:49:51
I would say we're in compliance as of January 19 2024.
Julie Won
1:49:55
Okay.
John Benson
1:49:56
That's when the official rollout went out.
Rita Joseph
1:49:59
Okay.
1:50:00
Thank you.
1:50:01
And that's with everyone?
John Benson
1:50:03
Yes.
