A public service announcement that was popular for several decades starting in the late 1960s asked, “Do you know where your children are?” Pretty soon, parents with children who are students in the Mars Area School District will be able to give a more definitive answer to that question.

The district’s school board voted last month to approve a new GPS tracking system known as Stopfinder that will allow parents to track the location of their child’s school bus in real time.

Once the app — which district transportation director Cristina Smith said is in its “infancy stages” — is operational, parents will be able to see when the bus is scheduled to arrive, and will know if something, such as construction on the Route 228 project during the next two years, is causing the bus to arrive late in picking up or dropping off their child.

“I think it alleviates the (worry) parents would have in knowing whether their bus is coming, or has arrived or is delayed, especially in inclement weather,” Smith said.

To access the app, parents would be sent individual invitations via email that are attached to their child’s student ID number. Through the app, they’d be notified when the bus was approaching.

In this turbulent day and age, another method of keeping track of one’s children is a good thing. It’s also likely helpful for planning purposes to enable parents to know slightly ahead of time if their child’s bus is late and, in the process, possibly making the parent late for work.

A training and on-boarding process for employees affected by the program would need to occur before the system is put into place. The district would then plan to get small-group tests running in January.

Currently, the biggest hurdle for getting the system underway is that the GPS hardware devices that would need to be installed in the buses have not arrived due to shipping delays, an issue that’s plaguing many businesses around the nation.

We think this project is a good idea, and we hope Mars Area School District gets the required equipment in enough time to get the system launched as soon as possible.

— NCD