When I attended Elementary School, I was a "walker". We lived close enough to the school that I never had to deal with early morning buses and likewise my parents never worried that I made it onto the right bus and back home safely before they returned. A school district in Illinois is testing a new program that tracks your children and notifies the school when your kids board and exit the school's transit and bus system. Is it too far or would it provide peace for your family?
Maybe we've been watching too much crime TV lately (we swear Law and Order is on every channel at least once a day) but part of us rather likes the idea. Each child has a card that is scanned when entering and exiting the bus that sends a signal to someone at the school district's transportation center, allowing them to account for each child during every second they're in the schools custody. Although it sounds a little big brother in nature (because it totally does), there are some comforts that a system like this would bring.
If a child misses a stop while riding their bus, parents might be expecting them home earlier. Until now, no one would know the whereabouts of that child until the route was finished and the driver returned them to their proper stop or called someone to pick them up. Likewise, if they missed the bus in the morning but stood waiting on the corner for a bus that will never come and didn't make it to school on time, parents would be able to call the school to confirm what happened.
Although the set up is really only for the schools eyes, parents would be able to call in to check on their children in the case of an emergency and be able to track them down. We think it would be great to add one additional step of possibly text messaging parents when their children swiped their card (which they're aiming to do within the next year). It would either cut out the worry for all parties involved, or it would generate a ridiculous amount of phone calls from parents waiting for a text message who don't know a bus is running late or things are slightly off track for the morning. Although if you worked late or early, knowing your little one made it to the bus or back home safely would be a huge comfort that you otherwise wouldn't receive.
What do you think about the idea? How would it affect your family and it's daily routines? Would it be a comfort or does it border on crazy? You can read the full story at the Chicago Tribune.
(Image by Flickr member Heather Elias licensed for use under Creative Commons.)
Find Your Style: 20 Classic to Contemporary Kitchens to Add to Your Inspiration Board
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How To Make Perfect Bacon in the Oven
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
I Love the idea!! It just makes me a little less fearful for the kids...
I got on the wrong bus to go home in 3rd grade. I knew my street name but not the names of the other streets in my neighborhood so the bus driver didn't know where to take me until I told him the name of my regular bus driver. In the end it was 5:00 before I got home and my mom had basically flipped out. Of course it didn't help that I didn't tell the bus driver I was on the wrong bus until the very end of his normal route. This would have saved my mom the worry knowing I was safe, just on the wrong bus.
I think this is a must have in school districts to give parents and teachers peace of mind that kids are safe, sound, and getting to where they need to go. can't wait to hear how this works out for them.
Interesting. There's a story floating around about the same tech being used with preschoolers in CA. Instead of cards, they're getting jerseys with the chips in them. I haven't seen much positive feedback on that article. Wonder what the difference is.
Interesting. As the mother of a kindergartner who started school yesterday--a kindergartner who is insisting on riding the bus--this definitely would give me some peace of mind. For now, I'm meeting her at the school to help her find her classroom and meeting her in the afternoon to make sure she gets on the right bus to go home, but she's already antsy to do it all herself. I try not to be helicoptery, but I know I'll be a nervous wreck the first few times she does the bus routine herself (which will probably be late next week--yikes!).
On Tuesday I will not only be sending my kindergartener across the city of Chicago but also my 3yo who has autism. I know my older child can say his name and address, but with all the new things to remember it may be overwhelming. My 3yo is totally nonverbal and while he will ride with only 7 kids on his bus, it would make me feel more relaxed to keep track of him.
I don't see the harm unless people can see the kids names (or addresses) on their cards and they get lost. I also live in IL and just the other day a 4 year old was left on the bus and bus driver and assistant failed to check the bus and even lied about the whereabouts of the kids.
I have watched my oldest step onto the bus every morning but there are a lot of parents who can't.
I'm really surprised everyone is unanimously for this. Seems very big brother to me.
Seems pretty big brother to me too, BadJuJu77. I think these kinds of systems are feeding on (and feeding) fear. But then I'm not a parent so I really can't say how I'd feel if I had kids going on the bus. As a kid my four siblings and I took the school bus (an hour each way, including a transfer onto another bus part-way) and I don't remember parents being worried back then. Of course this isn't 1980 either...
As if public schools and society as a whole aren't already Big Brother? This is a drop in the bucket if that is your concern.
I bet Etan Patz mother wishes this had been around. There is no need to create or feed fear when there are legitimately things to fear especially when you are talking about children who are young enough to be easily tricked and manipulated.
This is a ridiculous waste of money.
I think it is a wonderful idea, but only if the device is controlled by the parents. No reason for the schools to have a GPS tracker inside the students' homes.
My local public school system lost several children during the first week of school this year. A system like this would have put parents at ease, knowing exactly where their children were, and knowing precisely when and where their children were picked up and dropped off.
I think it would be more Big Brother if the KIDS had GPS on them. But the bus has GPS, which I think it should for management purposes, and the kids check in and check out. This seems pretty sensible, and from the description it's not hugely costly. I would even be willing to pay the $3.25 for my kid's card myself.
Back in the day, we had to have paper permission slips to get on a bus other than our assigned one. But that relied on each bus driver recognizing every kid that should be on their bus, so they would know who was a regular and who was not. Maybe that was sensible when kids rode the same bus with the same bus driver for years, but it seems less practical today. Ditto for a kid missing their stop, which probably happens somewhat frequently.
Is there a huge need for this technology all the time? No. There is a very, very occassional need. But when that need is there, the advantages are huge. So this is a pretty low-risk, high-return system IMO.
This isn't 1980- it's actually safer than 1980. Violent crime is down, the vast majority of abductions and sexual assaults on children occur by family or friends, not strangers and the greatest danger of all has nothing to do with the child being on the bus or not. Well, it does, if a child is on the bus or in a car of any sort, the odds of the child being seriously hurt or killed in an auto accident is FAR, and I do mean FAR more common than any of the other "worries" that parents frequently have these days. http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ If you don't believe me, this lady has the stats on all of this, and the rational understanding. I am a parent, my child is in school, I do get it. I however, feel that cash strapped school systems should be spending their money on teacher salaries and keeping teachers employed and in the classroom WITH YOUR KIDS instead of pandering to the out of control worry of helicopter parents.
How ridiculous! If you're worried about this kind of thing, put your kid in a bubble and leave the rest of us alone to live peacefully in this pretty-darn-safe world.
Stop watching TV and look at real stats. You'll see that crime is down and that children who are abducted or abused are nearly always victims of people they know, not strangers.
Give children the tools to be independent, to speak up for themselves--give them skills to navigate their neighborhood. Obviously it's a different situation if a child has a disability. But don't hobble your children by building structures around them to keep them safe. Teach them how to keep themselves safe by speaking to strangers (yes, seriously) when they are lost are confused.
For every child that someone cites as an example of why the world is scary, there is a child who could have been helped if they had been taught to reach out to strangers for help instead of stay away from them. Like this little girl (yeah, this version of the story is from Fox, but I don't have time to find another source): http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190586,00.html