Wake students will soon have to scan an ID to board and exit buses. But is it practical?
Starting next school year, Wake County students will need to scan a barcode to ride a school bus.
The Wake school system will issue ID cards that bus riders will need to carry on them daily to scan on newly installed barcode readers on school buses. Administrators say the new $700,000 system will provide schools and parents with needed information on when and where students board and exit the bus.
“All of this is an enhancement to safety for our bus riders, and I think it’s an interesting add to the buses,” Bob Snidemiller, senior director of transportation, told the school board’s facilities committee on Tuesday.
The district issued a request in June for companies to bid for a contract to install CalAmp Wireless Network barcode readers on all district buses.
A district spokesperson said Wednesday that a school board vote on the contract isn’t required. Instead, under board policy, administrators need to report purchases of more than $250,000 to the board.
Snidemller said most of the $700,000 initial cost will go toward purchasing and installing scanners on 850 buses. He said there will be $140,000 a year in recurring costs, mainly to print new ID cards and to lease the printers for the cards.
No start date for the new system has been set yet. But the spokesperson said it will occur at some point during the 2024-25 school year.
‘Priceless’ peace of mind for parents
Snidemiller briefed the school board on the new barcode system on Tuesday.
A barcode reader will be installed at the entrance of each bus. Before entering and exiting the bus, students will need to scan the barcode on their newly issued ID card. Students can also take a picture of the barcode and scan it from their smartphone.
The eventual goal, Snidemiller said, is to link the system to the Here the Comes Bus app that provides families with information on the location of their child’s bus.
A not-uncommon situation is parents reaching out to the school system or even police when their child isn’t home even though the bus is supposed to have dropped them off. Snidemiller and David Neter, Wake’s chief business officer, said the new system can let them more quickly track down the location of students.
“If this can save a handful of those alone, that’s priceless,” Neter told the committee.
In addition to the safety benefits, Snidemiller says the information will allow them to improve bus routes by knowing more precisely how many students get on and off each stop.
When students forget their ID card
Some school board members questioned the practicality of having students, especially in elementary school, remember to bring their ID card every day.
“That sounds really, really great in theory,” said board member Toshiba Rice. “But the reality is teachers can’t even get children half the time with their parents to turn back in their weekly folder, let alone remember a bus ticket to get on a bus every day. I really hope transportation understands reality and works with families.”
Bus drivers will have the capability to manually log in students who don’t have their ID card, Snidemiller said.
But Snidemiller told the board the system can work. He pointed to how elementary schools already put tags on the bookbags of bus riders that contain information such as the child’s name and contact numbers.
The vendor will provide Wake with 60,000 ID cards to start. But the district can print new ones because it’s expecting a reissue rate of 20% each year due to students losing their card and new bus riders entering the system, according to Snidemiller.
“We’ve planned ahead so that we have the cards for replacement and that sort of thing to make certain that all students will have a card when they need it,” Snidemiller said.
This story was originally published June 26, 2024 at 3:03 PM.
