CHARLESTON, S.C. — SafeStop has seen significant growth in the use of its school bus app this school year, the company reported on Tuesday.

SafeStop is a tracking and communications app that lets parents know where the bus is and when it is coming. The program also provides school bus operations with data and analysis to help boost efficiency.

The company said that for the third consecutive year, SafeStop has grown “at a rapid pace” in the number of school buses tracked and registered users.

SafeStop began the 2017-18 school year with about 25,000 parents and guardians registered for the app, with more than 3,000 vehicles running on the platform. At this point in the school year, those totals have risen to about 40,000 users and more than 3,500 vehicles.

SafeStop said that service will be launching soon on more than 600 new vehicles in multiple major school districts in Tennessee. The company is also conducting pilots with fleets in Maryland, Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Cecelia Catherwood, transportation secretary at Falcon (Colo.) School District 49, said that SafeStop has helped inform parents and cut down on calls to the transportation office.

"In the past, we had to spend a lot of time answering phone calls from parents," Catherwood said. "Now parents can simply use the app to find out whatever they need to know about the location of their child. I've worked in this department for 14 years and have never seen a tool like this before.”