FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Parents in Forsyth County will soon have a way to track their children’s school buses in real time, something they have long asked for.
The Forsyth County School Board just approved a contract to put tablets in all school buses.
Channel 2’s Bryan Mims was in Forsyth County, where the devices are designed to help drivers better navigate their routes while keeping students safe, and getting them to school on time.
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The tablets will be used to provide real-time tracking for all of the school district’s buses.
Parents will be able to download an app on their phones that shows the location of their child’s bus, as well as when it will arrive at the bus stop.
Bus driver Belinda Maxwell said the onboard tablets will make her job easier because the route will be on a screen with turn-by-turn navigation. She said it’s a big upgrade.
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“It’s all on paper now,” Maxwell explained.
She showed Channel 2 Action News that currently, drivers have printed directions to navigate their routes.
Forsyth County Schools signed a contract with BusRight, a tech company, and over the next year, each of the district’s 500 buses will get a tablet similar to the screen technology used in more modern vehicles.
“Basically taking a process that would take a routing supervisor hours and hours and turn it into minutes,” Mike Satterfield, the district’s Chief of Transportation, said.
Satterfield told Channel 2 Action News that the tablets, each more than $1,200 a piece, will give drivers road conditions and reroute them if necessary.
He said access to the app will also be limited to parents with enrolled students.
“We’ll be able to match the parents with their students so that way the only information that a parent or guardian would receive related to students on the bus would be for their child,” Satterfield said.
The technology will also let district officials map where students live and identify locations for bus stops.
“What it’s gonna allow us to do is route more efficiently,” Satterfield said.
According to the agreement with BusRight, the first 100 tablets will be installed this spring, with all 500 to be equipped by the start of the 2027-2028 school year.
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