NEW LAW: All NYC School Buses to Have GPS, Allowing Parents to Track Location

Next school year, NYC parents will be able to track their child’s school bus like you can do with Uber right now.

The New York City Council unanimously passed legislation that would require all buses have a GPS tracking system and a two-way radio. It will also add more reporting requirements for bus drivers. All that is left is for Mayor Bill de Blasio to sign on the bill.

This comes after the sudden snowstorm in November left buses stranded in traffic for hours, and parents couldn’t reach their kids.

The council is now mandating that next school year buses have real time GPS tracking, and two way radio systems. The Office of Pupil Transportation will also be required to do practice runs on bus routes before the school year starts, and produce reports tracking complaints and quality of service.

The legislation was named STOP, which stands for the Student Transportation Oversight Package. Along with the installation of two-way radio devices and GPS systems on school buses, the city will now be mandated to report bus times, delays and complaints.

All 10,000 city school buses are now required to install these systems by September. As of now, 6,000 are already equipped with this technology.

Councilman Ben Kallos first introduced legislation back in 2014 to get GPS tracking installed on every school bus.