When the School Bus Is Late...

If you’ve ever waited for a late school bus to bring your kids home, you know how fast the anxiety and worry can start to build with every minute. Five minutes goes by, then 10, then 15. And finally, you see the big yellow bus lumbering down the road. Now, imagine you had to wait for an hour, or even 2, without knowing where your kids are.

This happened last winter in Waterbury, Connecticut. According to The Republican-American newspaper, a sudden snow squall in December of 2007 left about 900 city children stranded on school buses, some until 10 p.m. Parents of students, some as young as 3, were unaware of the bus delays because there was no reliable system of notification.

What a nightmare for those parents, as well as those school secretaries and administrators that were no doubt fielding tons of phones calls from worried and upset parents.

The chief operating officer for the Waterbury school district said that this incident “prompted the need for a quicker way to notify parents." Since then, the district has implemented a state-of-the-art emergency notification system.

With the technology available today, there’s no reason for incidents like the one in Waterbury to happen! Parents can be notifiied immediately of any problems with instant communications systems like CME. We are ready to help school districts implement a secure, reliable system that can give parents peace of mind when school buses are delayed, or other threats or situations require immediate attention. And with winter weather headed our way soon, now is the perfect time to implement a system that makes instant communication easy and affordable.