MACON, Ga. — The first day of school can be exciting and upsetting at the same time.
It's a new year and a fresh start for many of the kids and first-time parents.
But one parent in Bibb County Schools had a rough start to the school day.
Rachael Cox has a daughter who started at Howard High School this year. She says she heard there was a new bus app during the school's open house, but she never made it to the introduction for the app.
Cox received a reminder text from her daughter's school saying in order to find her daughter's school bus, she would need to download and sign up on the Traversa Ride 360 app.
"I knew they had an app, and I tried to get it on my phone. Didn't have good luck with that," Cox said.
Cox thought she followed all the directions to find her daughter's bus assignment.
"It gives us a link to download it, and I did, and no bus information. I signed her up, no active routes," Cox said.
13WMAZ reached out to the Bibb County Transportation Department. Transportation Director Anthony Jackson told us:
"The first day with the Traversa Ride 360 app seemed to go well. I am working with Tyler Technologies' support team to resolve an issue I was made aware of on the app end.
The process for completing route and bus assignments for the new school year may begin as early as March of the previous school year. This starts with providing families with an opportunity to register for transportation services for the new year. Shortly after they register, the requests are processed and made available.
We have been migrating to the Traversa web-based transportation platform for well over a year. Along with the Traversa Ride 360 parent and student application, this web-based platform provides a complete suite of connected transportation management tools that include advanced routing, turn-by-turn route navigation, student ridership, field trip planning, fleet maintenance, and GPS tracking. Traversa Ride 360 is one of the final rollouts, and that began on July 26, 2023. As of August 1, 2023, 1,641 users have downloaded and registered in the app.
Transportation information for students that are eligible, registered, and assigned is usually available within three days after registering for transportation."
Cox says she waited to reach out to the school, because she knew it was a new app and there would be some glitches.
"They've let us know that first day, first week like the phones are going to be busy. I understand I get it," Cox said.
Cox says her mother will have to drive from Covington, Georgia at least twice this week to pick her daughter up from school, because she works when school lets out. She hopes the problem will be fixed.
"I just wish they had had papers this year too," Cox said. "I mean, you would think you would just kind of do the same system."
When her daughter was taking the bus in middle school, she says there was a bus assignment bulletin board that showed what bus her daughter would be on along with the time and location to be picked up.
"I'm not knocking the new system but it would just be better if it were working," Cox said.
13WMAZ did reach out to other parents who said their child used the app and did not have problems.
Parents who have questions or concerns about the app should reach out to the Bibb County School District Transporation Department.