New bus policies require 6-12 graders to scan IDs when boarding, departing buses

by Aubrey E.

As of August 23, students who are in the grades 6-12 and go to school in Lexington district 2 are expected to scan their IDs during the morning and afternoon routes. This started to ensure parents about the whereabouts of their children.

Parents can track their children through an app called Ride360. This app allows them to know how far away their children are and what time their children would be arriving at their drop off location. If the students don’t have their IDs, the bus drivers can look up their names.

Prior to our district's adoption of this policy, others paved the way. In Osceola County, FL, for example, students started to scan ID badges when getting on and off the bus in 2022. They added this policy to keep the students safe and to “ help them monitor who is getting on and off buses as they travel to and from school.

This monitors what students get on and off the bus. It helps stop people getting on the wrong bus or people who are trying to intentionally get on the bus when they are not supposed to.

This year is the first time Lexington District 2 uses this policy. When students first walk onto the bus, there would be a scanner in the front near the bus driver. If it is the first time scanning their IDs they have to make sure the current information pop ups on the ipad next to the scan. The next time they scan their IDs, they don’t have to confirm the information because the information is already saved. Students also scan their IDs when they get off the bus. This happens during the morning and afternoon routes.

Before this new policy came into effect, many schools were dealing with shortage of bus drivers and having overpacked buses. Schools still have a shortage of school bus drivers, so many bus drivers have to do other bus routes which mean double the students and a lot more time being used. Parents were having issues with their children being dropped off hours after the usual time they are dropped and not being able to find their children because they can not reach the bus drivers. The app Ride360 helps parents know more about what might be happening if a situation comes up.

For some buses it may take longer to pick up students during the afternoon route. A lot of students are trying to get on the bus at the same time but have to wait while people ahead of them have to scan their IDs.

This year being the first year for Lexington district 2 to use this new technology but not much said about using it in the future. This is a test run to see if this policy is beneficial to parents and schools.

Not a lot of schools have the ID scanners on buses yet. Only a few districts have this policy. This policy is not a state law so most schools don’t have this policy but it's slowly getting around to different states.