An added safety measure has been introduced to ensure that students safely board and exit the bus at their correct stops.
Starting with the 2023-2024 school year, Hillsborough County has teamed up with Here Comes the Bus, an app that allows parents to track school buses and notifies them when their child gets on and off the bus.
These passes are known as Student Ridership ID cards. As students board the bus, each student scans their Student Ridership ID card, allowing their parents to track their location through the Here Comes the Bus app. Upon their exit, students scan their ID cards once more. Once the student has exited the bus, there is no ability to further identify the student’s location.
Unlike the bus, the Student Ridership ID cards do not have any GPS tracking built into them. While the bus is consistently tracked using GPS, the snapshot of where the child is located is only visible as the rider gets on and off the school bus.
“When a student scans their Student Ridership ID card as they enter or exit the bus, there is no ability to further identify a child’s location off the school bus. There are no RFID card readers inside our schools. The only location where an RFID reader will be utilized is on the school bus,” as stated on the Hillsborough County website.
In order for a parent to access this information, the parent must download the Here Comes the Bus app or log into the website. Here Comes the Bus allows parents to see where their child’s bus is located along with where the child scanned on and off the bus. This information is not available for parents to see on any other children.
Although geared more towards parents with younger children, bus passes have become mandatory for all student bus riders in Hillsborough County, including Robinson students.
Many students feel that this precaution is unnecessary for high school students.
“I mean not all the high schoolers on my bus have them [Student Ridership ID cards], but I have one,” Eden Risher (’26) said. “I think it just depends on what type of student you are. If you’re known to act out and skip school [then maybe the cards are necessary], but when I first got it, I saw it as an inconvenience.”
Despite initial annoyance, many students have adjusted to using the cards and no longer have a problem with the new system.
“These passes didn’t really change or affect my bus riding routine. I think they enforced the bus passes for safety and a way of keeping track of whose riding the buses in the morning and afternoon,” Shoira Afandikhonova (’24) said. “At first, they were a nuisance because it would create long lines on the bus since you’re waiting for the people in front of you to take it out of their backpacks and scan it and then it’s the next person in line. Over time I didn’t mind it, it’s just a card you scan and go.”
