CANTON, Ga. — A school district here is expanding its pilot of an app that enables parents to track their child’s school bus.

Cherokee County School District’s transportation department began testing Tyler Technologies’ Versatrans My Stop system earlier this school year with selected parents. Last week, the district announced that it will roll out the pilot to three schools on March 5.

The district said that its goal is to expand access to the app to all parents at the start of the next school year.

“Providing real-time bus information to parents is an important service we have worked toward for the past two years,” Superintendent Brian Hightower said. “Knowing whether a bus is on schedule gives parents the option of keeping their children indoors as long as possible on cold mornings and eliminates the worry that comes with not knowing where the bus is when it’s running late.”

Versatrans My Stop offers parents the ability to track their child’s school bus through the district’s website or the My Stop mobile app. The GPS-based system shows parents the location of their child’s bus on a map of its route for 15 minutes prior to its scheduled arrival at the bus stop, in the morning and in the afternoon. The system also alerts parents of how many minutes away the bus is from the stop.

Cherokee County School District noted that the schools will have access to an “arrival board” online, similar to screens at an airport, so staff there will have complete and accurate information about all buses. Also, the My Stop system is expected to eliminate the need for school staff to prepare and send notifications if a bus is delayed.

Parents will only have access to the route for their child’s home address. Accounts can only be set up by parents who have their child’s student ID.