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APS plans bus safety upgrades, apps and expanded driver training ahead of school year
Summary
Albuquerque Public Schools plans interior cameras on contracted buses, pilots of boarding-tracking technology and a parent-facing real-time bus app, alongside expanded driver safety training starting in early August, district transportation officials said.
Royce Bins, executive director of transportation for Albuquerque Public Schools, outlined steps the district plans to take to address parent concerns about student safety and bus communications. "We're adding interior cameras ... on all contracted buses going forward so that we have a clear view of what's going on in all of the buses that deliver students throughout the district," Bins said. He also described pilots of optical readers to register student boarding and an app that provides real-time bus locations for parents.
Bins said the district will begin driver safety training at a startup meeting on August 3 and will continue monthly safety meetings and audits. "We have in our department over 380 employees, and so that transport almost 32,000 kids daily. We run about 27,000 miles a day and about 4,500,000 a year," he said, citing fleet and staffing figures to contextualize the scale of the system.
The presentation stressed better proactive communication to parents about route changes and delays and noted the district has dispatch centers and improved summer communications with parents and schools. District staff directed attendees to aps.edu/transportation for stop-search tools and policy information and said they will post a compiled FAQ after the listening session.
