Clark County school student bus tracking trial run called successful

More than 700 Clark County students were given ID cards last year in a trial to track their whereabouts on school buses, according to Director of Transportation Frank Giordano.

He called it a “huge success,” contending that the system – piloted across all grade levels for four weeks – would be an asset for the county’s school district, the nation’s fifth-largest, transporting about 110,000 students daily.

“We’d love to have it,” he said. “And it would give people some comfort.”

But because of financial problems, the district has shelved any large-scale program.

The system, offered by Seattle company Zonar, is called ZPass. Students carry ID cards that log their entry and exit as they pass by bus scanners.

In Clark County’s trial, the scanners were connected to buses’ GPS systems, which relay buses’ positions to headquarters in live time. For that reason, if a parent called about a child, the district could pinpoint the student or say that student never got on a bus. The advanced version allows parents to receive tracking information online.

Giordano said there was a concern students would lose their passes, but attaching them to backpacks worked. Still, who would pay for the $2 cards when lost? And who would cover the upfront cost of buying 110,000 ZPasses and scanners for 1,492 buses, totaling about $500,000?

Money is tight. The district didn’t win voter approval for a $669 million property tax increase on Election Day, meaning departments will have to tighten their belts even more, he said. To save $10 million, the district cut 200 buses last year by changing bell times of 139 schools.

For these reasons, a large-scale endeavor is unlikely at this time, he said.

But ZPass isn’t off the table. Implementation is being considered for the district’s 10,000 special-need students, Giordano said.