CINCINNATI – A growing number of school districts and parents are relying on the industry’s most comprehensive and secure bus tracking, communications and engagement platform to better manage the hectic before- and after-school rush. The FirstView® District Dashboard and Parent App has seen a 667% increase in users over the 2018-2019 school year.
FirstView allows districts to streamline daily decision-making through centralized, real-time fleet tracking and can efficiently alert parents about school delays or issues. Parents can receive their student’s bus status and district messages at their fingertips from their mobile phone or desktop.
“We created FirstView to better support the school districts, parents and students we serve,” said Claire Miller, First Student senior vice president of strategy, business development, marketing and communications. “Parents want real-time updates and more peace of mind surrounding their child’s journey to and from school. Our school district partners want better tools for managing their bus fleet and staff resources. FirstView provides accurate and quick information, which frees parents and administrators from worry. We look forward to introducing it in even more communities next school year.”
Currently, 184 school districts across North America use the Parent App and District Dashboard, providing bus tracking coverage for more than 350,000 students at approximately 4,200 schools. District administrators have used FirstView more than 95,000 times to proactively and securely communicate with parents about schedule changes or school announcements.
“Our district’s strategic plan has a safety goal, and FirstView fits into it perfectly,” said Lisa Riveros, director of transportation for Wichita Public Schools. “Students and parents need to trust transportation is safe and reliable. We want to do all we can to ensure our buses are on time. FirstView allows us to be a part of each student’s journey to and from school every school day.”
Easy to download, set up and use, FirstView contains helpful features, including estimated bus arrival time, opt-in district messaging regarding delays or issues, customizable alerts for when the bus is a chosen distance or number of minutes away, secure password protection and built-in customer support. It’s also now available in 10 languages to better meet the needs of districts and users.
For more information on FirstView, districts can go to firstviewapp.com or email marketing@firstviewapp.com. Parents can find the FirstView Parent App in the App Store or Google Play.
About First Student, Inc.
As the leading school transportation solutions provider in North America, First Student strives to provide the best start and finish to every school day. First Student completes five million student journeys each day, moving more passengers than all U.S. airlines combined. With a team of highly-trained drivers and the industry’s strongest safety record, First Student delivers reliable, quality services including full-service transportation and management, special-needs transportation, route optimization and scheduling, maintenance, and charter services for 1,100 school district contracts. For more information, please visit firststudentinc.com.