Tracking system coming for Calgary students who ride the bus

Calgary's public and Catholic school boards are creating hi-tech bus tracking systems as they try to keep parents more informed and children safer. And one mother says it's about time.

Tasnim Winn recalls some scary moments a few years ago when her son fell asleep on the bus heading home from his first day of kindergarten.

He missed his stop.

"It was awful, all I wanted was my son back," Winn told CBC News.

"I had to go pick him up without a car seat, I was like, 'I just want my son back.'"

She says the driver found him at the end of his run safe and sound.

But now the Calgary Board of Education is trying to prevent these rare but alarming incidents.

They are giving students who take the bus state-of-the-art passes that they swipe each time they get on or off the bus.

Parents can't track school bus location

"I think what parents really wanted was the option to know their [child's]bus was late,"Lisa Davis with the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils told the Calgary Eyeopener.

But she said these new passes only track whether a student got on or off the bus and not theirreal-time location.

She said the association was only made aware of the new technology through aFreedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) request, which showed the technology could cost "well over amillion dollars a year."

"So we're spending quite a lot of money and it doesn't seem to be addressing the main issue that parents wanted addressed."

'Tracking where the child is very quickly'

CBE transportation spokesperson Carrie Edwards says that information is sent to the school board.

"The important thing is, it allows us to reduce the time when we have an emergency by tracking where the child is very quickly," she said.

Edwards says eventually parents will be able to download an app to monitor their kidstoo.

Meanwhile, Catholic schools are developing an app for parents that will track themovements of the busesin real time.

That's expected to be available by next spring.

• MORE ALBERTA NEWS |Calgary church welcomes pets for Blessing of the Animals
• MORE ALBERTA NEWS |An old house finds a new home in the middle of a Banff hotel

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener