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Georgetown ISD parents say bus safety feature not used properly

For 40 minutes, April Rock did not know where her daughter was - and neither did her elementary school.

GEORGETOWN, Texas — Within one month of each other, two Georgetown ISD parents said that the district could not tell them where their children were after one never made it on the bus, and the other was dropped off miles from home.

School buses typically serve as reliable transportation to get students to and from school, but both families say the district's transportation system failed them.

April Rock says on Feb. 7, she checked the "smart tag system," an app connected to a program installed on Georgetown ISD busses, to make sure both of her children had made it on their ride home. Rock noticed her third-grader, Rileigh, was not listed on the bus, prompting he to call Rileigh's campus to double-check.

"[The school] called transportation," Rock said of the person who answered her call at Wolf Ranch Elementary School. "Probably five minutes later, she said 'she's on the bus.' And I was like, 'fantastic, I'm headed home.'"

But that would quickly be proven false, because when the bus got to Rock's home, Rock's son exited the bus, but Rileigh did not.

“So I asked the driver. He’s like, 'I don’t know where your daughter is.' And I was like, 'what do you mean you don’t know where my daughter is? Did transportation not call you and ask you?'" Rock recalled. "He said, 'yeah and I have three Rileigh’s [on the bus]. How am I supposed to know which one’s which?'”

For 40 minutes, Rock could not find her daughter. Rock called Wolf Ranch Elementary School again, who insisted Rileigh was on the bus. Rock told the person on the other side of the line that she was standing at the bus stop and Rileigh was not.

“If I call a school, they should know where my kid is," Rock said.

The smart tag system, which tracks a bus route in real-time, is a safety feature bus riders use. Students scan a tag when they enter and exit the bus, and the scan then knows where students are to be picked up and dropped off.

Rileigh's tag was never scanned. Rock said the district overlooked it.

”If this tagging system is so important that so many districts have it, then it should work appropriately," Rock said.

Rileigh was later found still at Wolf Ranch Elementary School. 

However, this was not the case in January. Ginger Hall said her five-year-old son John, who also attends Wolf Ranch Elementary School, managed to get on the wrong bus and was dropped off in a neighborhood miles away from home.

Hall was initially told that John was dropped off at a cousin's house off of Highway 21, but Hall said she has no family in the area.

Just like Rock, for more than 40 minutes Hall did not know where her son was, and neither did his school.

Eventually, a woman who took John to her house was able to contact the school to let them know John was with her and that he'd gotten on the wrong bus.

Hall told KVUE that John's principal later told her that the bus driver overrode the smart tag system alerting the driver that John was on the wrong bus. This allowed John to exit at the wrong location. 

Hall says the principal was apologetic after the situation, stating that a five-year-old should not have been able to outsmart teachers, bus drivers and the principal.

Both parents said they want to see the safety tag system utilized properly so other young students aren't lost to their parents or the school.

Rock said her children will not attend Georgetown ISD next school year.

KVUE reached out to Georgetown ISD for comment but have not heard back at the time of publishing. 

Natalie Haddad on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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