During the first month of school, you should focus on updating your live routing data for the new school year, starting with issues identified during the first few weeks of school.

• Identify bus stops that are not being used.
• True up student bus stop assignments based on actual ridership patterns.
• Identify students who are not riding and develop a procedure on how to handle them.
• Create a parent transport stop for each school.
• Create a user code to identify students not riding.

Have a process for updating routing data.

• Identify staff responsible for updating and correcting data
  • Who updates routing information?
  • Who receives that updated information?
• Have a schedule to receive updates and corrections
  • Same deadline for all schools?
  • What format should be used?
  • Training for drivers and others involved?
• Redistribute Updates to Schools and Drivers
  • It lets them know you have used their updates
  • Builds confidence in the routing system as the source of accurate data

Annually, after the first month of school startup, schedule a follow-up meeting.

• What when well?
• What went wrong and how can we fix it?

In the winter months, Route Management should be up-to-date for the school year with routine maintenance and data updates being performed based on processes you have already set into motion during the first month of school startup.

• Other items that you may want to work on:
  • A “mini-school-start” at the semester break
  • New students
  • McKinney-Vento adjustments
  • Review of and adjustments to boundaries as needed
  • Review and update the Geocode (MARIS) for any street name or addressing issues
  • Check on your hazard streets and areas

In the spring, you should have your data clean and ready. It’s time to think about the coming year.

• Begin planning for the Fall
• Get a planning area set up by copying over the live data
• Promote students to the next grade level
• Review transportation data and make adjustments based on boundaries and schools
• Consider possible run and route optimization
• Identify new schools or closing schools to add or remove from the system when
• Update any programs you will need for the next
• Add new kindergarten students to the data set and set up transportation
• Set up busing for transition year students

If you need any help on any of the items through your calendar year, please reach out to your Account Manager. They will be happy to assist you through the process.