Forsyth County Schools Launches Free Real-Time Bus Tracking App

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools replaced its long-running bus tracking tool with the Edulog Bus Portal, a free app that placed live GPS tracking on every bus in the district for the 2024-2025 school year, giving parents real-time visibility into their children's commutes for the first time under the new system.

The district announced the switch on July 22, retiring the Here Comes the Bus app it had historically used to monitor stop arrival and departure times. Edulog Bus Portal was piloted during the summer school program before launching district-wide on the first day of school.

WS/FCS Chief Operations Officer Lauren Richards described the core value of the new tool in practical terms. "It really provides them with a stop window," Richards said. "And parents get notifications that the bus is so many minutes away, so they can send their child to the bus stop. If a parent can't be present for that, they can see the bus has made that stop and picked up the child, and it's a great way for parents to know what's taking place with their child's bus."

The app sends push notifications as a bus approaches a student's stop and delivers time-sensitive updates from the transportation department. One feature addresses a specific frustration in school transportation: if a substitute bus is assigned to a route, parents receive an automatic alert. GPS locators were installed across the entire bus fleet to power the tracking.

Funding helped make the rollout possible. WS/FCS was one of 21 counties in North Carolina to receive grant funds for the project, according to the district.

Edulog Bus Portal is free to download for parents and guardians.