HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Getting your child to the bus stop no longer has to be a problem if they attend a Houston County school.
Monday, the district announced a new mobile app for parents of bus riders called "Here Comes the Bus."
Shana Wood's second-, third-, and fifth-graders are all bus riders.
"This is our second year riding the school bus," Wood said.
Wood says the school bus has been helpful, but getting all three of her kids to the bus stop on time was sometimes a hassle.
This is because some days, the bus was on time, and some days, it was not.
This is no longer a problem, thanks to a new app that the Houston County School District launched.
"It's called "Here comes the Bus!" We're pretty excited to offer this to our students and, obviously, to our parents as a resource that will make life simpler for them, hopefully, and help us be more efficient on our bus routes," Tom Walmer, the district's Director of Transportation, said.
Walmer says the app allows parents to track the real-time location of their child's bus on a map.
"We love this app. We use it especially in the mornings when we're rushing and trying to get out of the house," Wood said.
Wood says the app shows her where the bus is in the neighborhood, which tells her when to start walking her kids to the bus stop
"If it's raining and the kids don't want to wait at the bus stop for a long period of time, we'll pull it up and they can just wait inside of the house or inside of the garage and we won't miss the bus in the mornings," Wood said.
Walmer says "Here Comes the Bus" is helpful to their bus drivers, too.
"Anything that will help the children know when the buses are going to be there will obviously help the driver. It's difficult to run a bus route in a timely manner if the bus is sitting at bus stops waiting for children to arrive if they're at the house or walking down the street," Walmer said.
Walmer says to use this app, parents will need to enter in the Houston County bus code.
The regular education bus code is 29158, and the special education bus code is 29157.
Then, you will be asked to enter your child's last name, and student ID number.