Technology is advancing at an ever-increasing pace. While these advancements may make our lives easier in countless ways, they also raise several important questions about privacy and safety. This is especially true for the topic of school and school bus surveillance.

Audio and video recording on school buses has the potential to increase safety in numerous ways during the daily trips to and from school, but many parents are concerned these devices may cross the line.

Video recording has stirred mild controversy in the past, but years since have led to the widespread implementation of cameras on buses. However, these devices are becoming more advanced and recent years have opened the door for improving these cameras with the ability to efficiently and affordably record audio within the bus as well.

The most common concern for parents is that bus rides serve as one of the few opportunities for students to openly socialize within the academic setting. During class, students are supposed to stay on task and talking is obviously discouraged, but the daily bus trips provide the rare chance for these students to make new friends, open up, and feel comfortable to say their thoughts around their peers.

This open opportunity to socialize also gives troublemakers ample opportunity to bully other students, which is usually verbal – not physical.

School and transportation administrators believe implementing audio recording within buses could cut down on bullying and allow more effective discipline based on the events captured. The problem is, parents are afraid recording devices could also stifle their children’s perception of the bus as a safe space to be their selves.

It is a difficult issue to navigate as both sides of the debate have reasonably concerns, but Richard Brent, CEO of Louroe Electronics, recently made a strong argument for how these recording devices can do significantly more good than harm for school buses. If you are concerned about your child’s safety and comfort on-board a school bus, Brent’s opinions may help sway your opinion in favor of school bus surveillance.

Read Richard Brent’s article here.

A new smartphone app will make it much easier for parents in one Minnesota school district to know when their child’s school bus is running behind.

The MySPPS app recently released by St. Paul Public Schools notifies parents when school buses are running behind so they don’t have to worry when their child is not home at the normal time. The app will also be highly useful for making sure children are not left waiting in below freezing temperatures for unsafe time periods.

When drivers in the district are running late, they report that to officials in the district. The MySPPS app monitors those reports so that users are also notified when drivers call in to report running more than 10 minutes behind. It also alerts parents when buses routes are cancelled due to weather or other problems.

Users are able to add specific bus routes to their “Favorites,” and they can share any alerts or information received through the app through text messaging, email, Facebook, or Twitter.

The district will continue to post bus status information on the school district’s website.

The district distributed a brochure to help inform parents about the app, which notes that late buses can occasionally make up time later in the route so students are advised to still arrive at the bus stop at the regular time.

School buses are quickly being adapted to the more connected modern age by installing new technology to improve school transportation for students and parents alike. One of the ways school buses are advancing is by adding WiFi to buses so that students can be more productive on the increasingly long trips home from school. Some school districts are even using buses equipped with WiFi to provide internet to poorer students likely do not have access to high speed internet at home.

While a few districts have already taken the leap to installing WiFi in a limited number of buses, a large number of districts are still skeptical of just how beneficial the service actually is. This infographic, created by wireless internet distributor SinglePoint, shows how adding WiFi allows children to make long bus rides more productive and safe for students.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has published a final rule to amend FMVSS to require all new vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds GVWR, including many Type A-1 school buses, to be equipped with rear-view “backup” cameras by May 1, 2018.

NHTSA strongly showed support of the cameras, saying the new requirements provide “the most effective and cost-effective” solution to protecting children and those with disabilities.

With the passing of the rule, the title of FMVSS 111 has also been updated from “Rearview mirrors” to “rear visibility” and expands the required field of view to include a 10-foot by 20-foot zone directly behind the vehicle.

School Transportation News explains the final rule was required by the passage of the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, named after a 2-year-old boy who was accidentally killed by his father while backing up into the family driveway.

The only vehicles which are not bound to this are motorcycles and trailers. All other vehicles, including school buses and “low-speed vehicles” must comply, as they say there is no available scientific data to support the argument that the requirements should apply to different types of vehicles.

“Backover crashes are not limited to any particular type of vehicle, and the agency is not aware of any vehicle type that categorically provides the driver with a sufficient rear field-of-view so as to avoid the types of backover incidents contemplated by Congress,” wrote NHTSA.