UP-TO-THE-MINUTE BUS ROUTE INFO

Parent Bus Tracking Application

edulog parent portal

Real-Time Information About Your Child’s School Bus Transportation

Parents – DeKalb County School District provides the Edulog Parent Portal smartphone app to help you receive information about your child’s school bus ride. It allows you to:

  • access designated bus stop times and locations
  • see real-time information about the location of your child’s school bus
  • receive notifications when the bus is getting close

Edulog Parent Portal lets parents see the time and location planned for school bus arrival at their child’s bus stop. The app also lets them view the location of the school bus to gauge arrival times each day and sends a push notification to their smartphone when the bus enters a user-defined geographic area around the stop. Parents only receive access by registering with data unique to their child. It’s all information to help parents feel secure about their child’s trip on the school bus!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS

Question: What is Edulog’s Parent Portal? How do I sign up to use it?
Answer: The Parent Portal mobile app by Education Logistics, Inc. (Edulog) allows school districts to share planned and actual school transportation information with parents and caregivers. The app pro-vides the latest information on the planned time and location of the student’s school bus stop. It can show the position of the school bus and give an alert as the bus nears the bus stop. With Edu-log’s Student Ridership module, parents and caregivers receive notifications when their student swipes an ID card on an RFID card reader as they board and disembark the bus.

Download the Edulog Parent Portal from the Google Play Store or the Ap-ple App Store. Search for “Edulog Parent Portal” and choose the app with the white bus on the teal back-ground.

Once you have the app down-loaded, sign up using your email ad-dress.

Question: Is there a Spanish version?
Answer: Yes. Once you have the app installed, the language can be changed from English to Spanish on the SETTINGS tab. Make sure to select SAVE to continue in the language of your choice.

Question: Should I register separately for each of my children?
Answer: Just register once for your school district. A single registration allows you to access information for all students for whom you have the security information.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE INSTALLED THE APP – GETTING STARTED

Question: How do I register my student in the Parent Portal?
Answer: This is done from the STUDENT LIST tab by selecting the “+” icon or the ADD STUDENT button. In order to register your student, you must have 5 pieces of information to ensure security.

  1. Student’s First Name (spelled correctly)
  2. Student’s Last Name (spelled correctly)
  3. School to which the student is assigned
  4. Student’s data of birth
  5. Student ID Number, assigned by the school district

Question: My student’s first or last name is often misspelled or has multiple spellings. Which spelling do I use to access his/her information in the app?
Answer: You must use the spelling of the first and last name that matches the spelling used by the school district’s student information system.

Question: I am having trouble finding my student’s school to fill in the SCHOOL field. What am I missing?
Answer: There are two ways to select your student’s school.

  1. One is to search based on the school name. As you type part of the school name, you will see schools that match that name, in full or in part. For instance, for Booker T. Washington School, you can begin typing “Booker” or “Washington” and a list of matching schools will appear.
  2. Alternatively, you can click on the small map icon to the right of the school field and then locate the school on the map, selecting the icon displayed at the school location.

Question: My student shows as PENDING or REJECTED. What do I do?
Answer: Typically, a student registration shows as PENDING or REJECTED if all 5 security fields do not match. You can see the data that you entered by selecting this student in the app and examining the data to check for typographical errors. If you have questions about the spelling of the name or the district ID number, you should contact the student’s school.

Question: How do I delete a student from my app?
Answer: From the STUDENTS tab, just swipe left for that student. This is also the process you use to delete a PENDING or REJECTED registration.

Question: I’m still having problems, who do I contact?
Answer: Please email your questions to the following email address: transportation-helpdesk@dekalbschoolsga.org

NOTE: Edulog’s other parent app, Parent Portal Lite, has a teal bus on a white background, so take care to download the correct app. Using the QR code pictured here will access the correct app.

Question: What does the HOME tab tell me?
Answer: The HOME tab shows the basic trip information for each student that you have added on your app. Typically this will be a morning and afternoon trip. For each trip the app displays the student’s name, whether notifications are activated for the trip, the scheduled pickup and drop-off times and the bus number. Trips are displayed in the order of the next pick-up or drop-off time.

Question: What is the envelope icon on the top right of the Home screen?
Answer: Your school district transportation department may send messages to parents and others that are using the app. Messages may be sent to specific individuals or those with students assigned to a specific bus route. App users receive these messages as a notification on their phone. Selecting the envelope icon allows you to see previously received messages.

Question: What do the pickup and drop off times mean? What about the distance?
Answer: On the HOME tab or the Transportation Schedule screen, the locations and times for pickup and drop-off are those planned by the school district. If the district maintains distinct transportation schedules on different days of the week, that planned information appears here as well. On the MY BUS tab, there is a distance which indicates how far, as the crow flies, the bus currently is from the planned bus stop.

Question: There is a date and time displayed by the bus icon. What does that mean?
Answer: On the MY BUS tab, the last reported time for the school bus is displayed beside the bus icon. NOTE: App users should understand that if the bus location has not been reported for recently, there could be problems with the GPS signal or other communications issues. In such a case, students should report to their bus stop at the usual time, 5 minutes before the expected time of the bus. This time display is important information to help parents correctly interpret the Where’s My Bus infor-mation.

Question: Why can’t I see the location of our school bus?
Answer: The school district has the option of when to allow the bus icon to be visible on the map. Many districts opt to show the bus icon only when buses are running routes.

Question: What if the map is inaccurate?
Answer: Edulog’s parent app uses Google Maps as its base map for display. No map source is perfect, but we have found the data in Google Maps to be sufficiently accurate to support the app. Unfor-tunately, Edulog has no ability to immediately correct Google’s base map. You may provide infor-mation directly to Google Maps via their “send feedback” option at https://www.google.com/maps.

Question: My student transfers to another bus. How will the app handle that?
Answer: The school that you enter to access a student’s data is the school that he or she attends. It may be that they transfer to a second bus before arriving at the school. However, morning alerts are sent as the bus arrives at the “home” school bus stop. That is, you will view the location of the bus that picks up the student at the bus stop of origin, presumably near the home. Similarly, in the after-noon you will see the bus as it approaches the “home” bus stop and receive notifications as the bus approaches that stop.

Question: We just moved (into or within the district). When can I start using the app?
Answer: The activation time is up to your school district. It may be available the day following the change or within a 2-3 day schedule implemented by the district.

Question: How can I be notified when my student gets on or off the bus?
Answer: Setting notification zones in the app allows you to receive alerts when the bus enters the zone that you define around your stu-dent’s bus stop. The notification zone is centered on the bus stop and can have a radius from 0 to 2 miles. Notifications are set and zones are created under the SETTINGS tab. Notifications are based on the bus location. Some districts provide notifications when stu-dents “swipe on” or “swipe off” the bus. This information is stored on the “WHERE’S MY CHILD” option on the STUDENT tab.

Question: When will I get notifications as the bus arrives at the bus stop?
Answer: You can receive notifications for the morning bus stop or the af-ternoon bus stop or both. Set a notification zone for each. Each can have a different radius. Set it to one that makes the most sense for each bus route. Further, there is a time window for notifications which you also control. The default time is from one hour before until one hour after the scheduled bus stop time. You may want to set a “tighter” window, especially if the same bus is in your area, perhaps serving another school, before or after your bus route.

Question: How reliable are the notifications?
Answer: The notifications are sent immediately when a GPS ping from your bus occurs within the notifica-tion zone. The school bus sends regular GPS pings to the app database in the cloud every 10-20 seconds. As with all technology, disruptions can occur. A lag can be produced if there is a disruption in cellular service or the GPS unit on the bus is disconnected. Make sure to monitor the app for bus movement prior to the expected time of the bus.

receiving notifications image

Question: Can other app users see my student’s Information?
Answer: NO. Only persons with information in the required security fields are able to access a student’s transportation information in the app.

Question: Where does the information about my bus stop come from?
Answer: The planned time and location of your student’s bus stop comes from the Edulog route man-agement system used by your school transportation provider.

Qusetion: Is my student’s picture stored on the internet?
Answer: NO. Pictures that you associate with the app, either from your photo library or taken new with the camera are resident on the mobile device where it is initiated. If you load the app on two dif-ferent devices, you will need to associate a photo on each device.

DeKalb County School District Launches Edulog Parent Portal App

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – Today, DeKalb County School District announces the launch of
the Edulog Parent Portal smartphone app. The app is designed to give parents and guardians
information about their child’s school bus ride.
The app allows parents and guardians to follow their child’s bus on a real-time map and stay up-to-date
with notifications when that bus nears the bus stop, the school, or a custom alert zone. Parents and
guardians only receive access by registering with data unique to their child.

How to Get Up and Running

  1. Review the “Getting Started” video
  2. Download the app, sign up, and check your email to authenticate
  3. Enter your student’s security information
  4. See your student’s bus stop time and location
  5. Locate your school bus and receive alerts

How to get started with Edulog Parent Portal

Parent Portal Infographics

Download Links

Scan this QR code with your smartphone camera to download the app, Edulog Parent Portal:
 qr-code  google-play  apple-play