IRVINE, Calif. — Technology solutions provider CalAmp and subsidiary Synovia Solutions have introduced a new feature to school bus tracking app Here Comes the Bus to help schools manage routes and trips necessitated by COVID-19.

The new functionality allows district transportation officials to create designated stops in the tracking app without routing software, enabling users to track any bus route. It also allows smaller districts that do not use routing software to deploy the Here Comes the Bus app.

Here Comes The Bus is currently being used by several school districts across the U.S. in pilot programs to track and alert parents about these new bus routes spurred by the pandemic-related school closures, according to a news release from CalAmp, which include meal and homework pickup and delivery. CNN recently reported that the Stanly County School District in North Carolina has deployed Here Comes the Bus to deliver meals to students during the mandated school closures resulting from COVID-19.

“We listened to our customers and developed an innovative solution specific to their needs,” said Jeff Clark, senior vice president of product management at CalAmp. “Here Comes the Bus has succeeded thanks to its simplicity and reliability, which both parents and transportation administrators require for their students. This new enhancement builds on that legacy of dependability and intuitiveness that’s been the hallmark of our success and now enables us to expand the app to serve smaller school districts.”

More than 300 districts across North America use Here Comes the Bus to deliver real-time school bus arrival and departure notifications to parents via mobile push and email notifications, according to CalAmp. The school bus tracking app is deployed by more than 2 million registered users today in major metropolitan school districts such as Minneapolis; Sacramento, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Orlando, Fla.; as well as scores of smaller districts.

The app has earned 4.6 stars on the Apple App Store with more than 65,000 reviews, and recently won GSMA’s 2020 Global Mobile Award (GLOMO) and an IoT Excellence Award, according to CalAmp.

CalAmp purchased Synovia Solutions in 2019. Here Comes the Bus was launched by Synovia in 2015.