GPS tracking of LAUSD buses is a good idea, but not always accurate, parents and drivers say – Daily News

New all-electric buses at the LAUSD bus station in Sun Valley Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced a new $75 million plan to convert the bus station to all-electric by 2026. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

By Corinne Smith, LA School Report

A new GPS system for LA Unified parents to track their children’s bus routes through the LAUSD app launched in May to share real-time updates and information about delays – but there have been glitches.

Several parents and bus drivers told LA School Report that the feature is often inaccurate, causing confusion in already difficult pickup and drop-off schedules.

“I was looking yesterday and my daughter managed to get on the wrong bus so I could track her from my own flying device,” said a parent of a primary school child who spends up to an hour and 45 hours on the bus every day is protocol. The parent asked to remain anonymous because speaking out about education issues has led to confrontation with school administrators in the past.

“However, when I looked on the app to see where her bus was, before I learned that she got on the wrong bus, the app showed that it was in Hollywood near Sunset, which was completely wrong,” said the mother.

Parents and guardians use various means to track students on the bus, including Apple Air Tags, cell phones and the district’s GPS.

“It’s definitely helpful,” one parent said of LAUSD’s GPS feature, “but with today’s technology and the school district’s budget, they can do even better.”

Lourdes Lopes picks up her 6-year-old son Dylan Hernandez from the bus at her home in South Los Angeles on Monday, March 20, 2023. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Parents discussed bus delays on an LAUSD Parents Facebook page early in the school year amid Tropical Storm Hilary and expressed frustration with GPS inaccuracies.

“While my kids were riding the bus last week the real-time tracking with the app wasn’t working, I was hoping it would work again at some point,” one parent wrote.

“I used the tracking system when it started last semester. It was 50% accurate. I don’t expect it to be any better this year,” commented another.

Los Angeles Unified runs an estimated 2,700 bus routes daily covering 70,000 miles and transporting an estimated 43,000 students, a district spokesman said.

The new bus tracking feature was introduced as part of a series of updates with the latest version of the LAUSD 3.0 app, available in English or Spanish, which includes viewing the school menu and anonymously reporting criminal or suspicious activity.

“I don’t know anyone whose GPS works properly,” said John Lewis, who has driven an LAUSD bus for 30 years.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” said Lewis, who has transported about 50 students on his current route from the San Fernando Valley to middle and high schools in Central L.A. for seven years. “I have a new bus and it doesn’t work. But the thought is a great thought.”

Lynniere Boyd-Peterson, a bus driver with LAUSD for 33 years, said the GPS is a good tool in theory, but hasn’t found it to work exactly.

She said sometimes parents blame drivers for delays in getting their children home because they don’t follow the bus route.

“We have a lot of parents who sometimes say things that are wrong,” Boyd-Peterson said. “And if they do that, the GPS can prove where we were. But if the GPS isn’t working properly, that’s not real evidence.”

Los Angeles is known for heavy traffic, and the district has a system in which drivers who are 10 to 15 minutes behind call and alert a dispatcher, who sends a text message to parents and families.

However, some parents said these texts could also be delayed and inaccurate.

“I have received text messages about delays, but usually only after I have dropped my kids off at the bus or after the bus has already picked them up,” said the parent, whose daughter is wearing a flight tag.

In an email to LA School Report, a district spokesperson denied claims of problems with the new GPS feature.

“Our systems currently indicate that the bus GPS functionality in the LAUSD app is running at full capacity and without interruptions,” the spokesperson said. “The LAUSD app simply takes the GPS data from our buses and submits that information through the parent portal.”

The spokesperson added that if families have issues with the app, they can contact the district at Transportation.division@lausd.net.

(Corinne Smith is a multimedia journalist based in Oakland, California. She has reported on school communities and education policy in the San Francisco Bay Area and rural Alaska. She is attending USC Annenberg for a master’s degree in professional journalism. This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. This article originally appeared in LA School Report, a nonprofit newsroom that covers Los Angeles’ education system from early childhood through college and career.)