DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. — The SafeStop school bus and student tracking app has debuted for parents of students at Campbell Hall, an independent school located in North Hollywood, California.  

The SafeStop app is designed to let parents, students and schools pinpoint the location of a bus on its route on a map showing its current location in relation to the child's stop, providing real-time arrival information updates and local school, traffic and emergency alerts.

Introduced to Campbell Hall families in December, the app is offered in partnership with Mission School Transportation (MST), the school's contracted student transportation provider.

Katie Jesensky, Campbell Hall's scheduling and services manager, said she has heard nothing but positive feedback from parents and students alike.

"Prior to the SafeStop rollout, parents would call all the time with questions about their child's bus," she said. "Since we started using the SafeStop app, we no longer get those calls. Parents now can see this information for themselves in real time."

The app is accessible from any device connected to the Internet — smartphones, tablets and desktop computers — and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The app first became available to select school districts in New York, Florida and South Carolina last fall and SafeStop is working with school districts in five more states to make their buses SafeStop-ready this year, company officials said.

"We developed the SafeStop app to end the school bus guessing game for busy parents," said Keith Engelbert, chief technology officer for SafeStop. "The app operates on a secure mobile platform, which provides a new level of safety, convenience and peace of mind to parents, students and school staff."

To further enhance safety and security — and provide transportation managers with timely and accurate ridership information — MST and SafeStop also provide Campbell Hall administrators with a digital record of each student's entry and exit from their school bus. Each bus is equipped with a reader that checks students on and off the bus when they swipe their student ID cards.

Campbell Hall is paying for parents of students to use the app. Other schools can choose between additional payment options, including a retail model where parents pay a monthly subscription fee, or where the service is brought to the schools through sponsorships with local and national businesses.

To learn more about the SafeStop app, go here.