Samsara for K-12

School bus tracking can help you increase the efficiency of your school bus transportation operations and safety of your student passengers. School busGPS fleet tracking can be done by implementing telematics technology that gives transportation managers and directors access to exact data on where the bus is, who is on it and what’s happening on the road. Telematics captures important information about operations, bus driver behavior, student ridership, student information, contact tracing, safety, fuel efficiency and vehicle health. Telematics combined with student tracking technology such as NFC ID readers add an additional layer of visibility into your student transportation providing transportation directors with an accurate bus activity log and student ridership reports- so they know if an when a student got on or off a bus- and can alert the school and parents when something out of the ordinary occurs. This not only helps ensure the public safety of the students but also helps reduce inbound calls from parents by sharing these real-time GPS locations and ETAs through popular parent app integrations and APIs, such as Edulog, Transfinder etc.

Samsara’s intuitive software, integrated hardware, and strong commitment to customer feedback has helped hundreds of School Districts across the US improve on-time performance, maintenance, streamline parent communication, and keep students safe, whether on the bus or at school. Samsara provides schools with smarter, safer and more efficient transportation and school security for students. Schools trust Samsara’s technology to ensure student safety when on or off the bus, streamline parent communication, improve on-time route performance, reduce fleet operation costs, and more—all in one easy-to-use, affordable system. Specifically for GPS fleet tracking, Samsara’s advanced Telematics, driver app and accessories (student card ID reader and fobs) help simplify school bus driver tools, improve on-time performance and reduce unsafe driving behavior among drivers, track vehicle locations and maintenance, driver safety data, and fuel usage across yellow and white fleets and streamline parent communication. Samsara’s connected operations platform also enables schools to easily and natively integrate with Samsara Dash cameras for interior, rear, and side camera footage as well as smart school facility cameras - all in one easy to access dashboard view. Samsara’s GPS fleet tracking solution provides immediate access to live or historical footage and investigative context. Easily replay PTO usage such as 8-way lights or stop paddles, view trip history or alert on route deviation. Schools Samsara for telematics, maintenance, real-time GPS, safety Dash cams, side rear and interior camera footage, contact tracing, driver coaching, PTO monitoring, electrification as well as school surveillance and public safety at school facilities. See how Birmingham City Schools (BCS) and East Allen County Schools use Samsara to ensure safe and efficient student transportation.

Yes, Samsara’s Real time GPS Telematics and video-based safety technology help schools track students and ensure the utmost safety for their students when on or off the bus. Samsara technology enables this with technology that unlocks; Real-time Location and Maintenance, Real-time Video Visibility, Operational safety, student tracking & parent communication and Intelligent School Surveillance.

• Real-time Location and Maintenance - Quickly identify buses in need of service with live engine diagnostics with automatic fault alerts, fuel usage reports, usage-based preventative maintenance schedules or tabs on over-utilized buses - to avoid breakdowns, and reduce downtime.

• Operational safety - Establish operational safety monitoring PTO usage such as 8-way lights or stop paddles, view trip history or alert on bus route deviation and bus conditions remotely. Ensure no student is left behind, with workflows for drivers to check for sleeping children at the end of the bus route. 

• Student tracking  & parent communication - Immediately locate students and log where they board and disembark (ridership reports) from buses with live GPS fleet tracking, NFC ID card readers or fobs and ridership reports. Give parents peace of mind and reduce inbound calls by sharing real-time bus locations and ETAs with parents through easily embeddable live sharing links, APIs and integrations with popular parent apps.

• Real-time Video Visibility -  Improve Driver & Student Safety with AI dash cams side, rear, and interior video from third-party cameras. Take immediate action with students and drivers in question with real-time alerts and video footage and automated driver coaching workflows and driver safety scores. 

• Intelligent School Surveillance - Ensure student safety and security while on school property by overlaying AI on Samsara or third-party security cameras. Streamline incident investigation with smart search features and easy video sharing and set up proactive alerts to ensure cameras are always capturing and alerting on security threats. 

Samsara integrates with the most popular parent app integrations, such as Edulog, Transfinder etc. and pass real-time GPS locations and ridership information (when NFC ID readers or fobs are used) and can push this information to the parent communication portals and apps that the schools are already using to share real-time ETAs, messages or safety alerts. 

Samsara’s technology helps schools operate safer and more efficient routes and integrate with popular bus routing software. Once you establish your school bus routes, you need to monitor performance to determine whether or not your routes are feasible and efficient. Samsara provides granular GPS trip histories and historical ID card scans to help you track trends in on-time performance, vehicle utilization, and student ridership. To streamline your workflows, you can access Samsara data in your Edulog software. From there you can make route optimization decisions, model what-if scenarios, and adjust plans based on “true ridership” (how many students actually ride the bus, as opposed to how many sign up). Once plans have been adjusted, the intuitively designed Samsara Driver App provides drivers all the tools they need to access their assignments, perform necessary inspections, and navigate through their days.

Roger Miller, Transportation Manager at East Allen County Schools has observed a noticeable difference in the quality of his operations. “By working with Edulog and Samsara, we were able to optimize our route plans and move from hard-wired telematics devices to a driver-friendly, tablet-based solution,” said Miller. "We were able to train drivers to use the tablets in two hours. This new system gives us faster re-routes, resulting in better performance for students and parents.” 

For schools, GPS-based vehicle telematics and fleet management software is not only important for route optimization but also used to oversee fleet performance and fleet maintenance and increase fleet efficiency. 

Samsara K-12 customers have a mixed fleet - not just school buses. Their transportation department consists of  both yellow and white vehicles, as well as an array of specialty vehicles (accessible vans) and equipment (generators, scoreboards etc). The average fleet composition for most school districts is 70% yellow school buses and 30% other vehicles, according to the School Bus Fleet 2019 Maintenance Survey. Other vehicles include maintenance trucks, vans, cars, and tractors.

White fleet vehicles usually travel between different schools, accessible vans pick up students with special needs and require accurate ETA data they each have very similar needs. Both yellow and white fleet vehicles require remote telematics to help with Real-time maintenance, GPS location, fuel usage, utilization data pre- post trip inspections and safety data. Fleet management software for schools  mixed fleet use vehicle telematics data to analyze fleet vehicles, vehicle location, service delivery and coverage, driver behavior, community safety, routing, dispatch units, diagnostics and preventative maintenance so that they can optimize their service their communities and respond to citizens. 

Parents today demand instant information and two-way communication. Without the right data and the right technology, K-12 transportation departments and human resources can spend hours responding to questions about bus locations and route updates and stressing out teachers, parents and school employees. So parents love Samsara’s technology when integrated with popular parent app integrations, such as Edulog, Transfinder etc. to proactively notify parents of any changes in route plans, send messages instantly to notify parents when the bus is approaching and streamline communication with real-time, accurate location information about their kids, through a parent portal or app interface. 

FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, is a federal law that governs the privacy of student education records. It grants parents (or eligible students, once they turn 18 or enter a postsecondary institution) specific rights concerning their child's educational records. These rights include the right to inspect and review records, request amendments, and exercise a degree of control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) from these records. Essentially, FERPA ensures the confidentiality and security of student data.