After a school bus driver shortage left hundreds of parents scrambling last year, the Toronto district and Catholic school boards are making some changes.
The TDSB and TCDSB are improving communication with parents about bus delays and cancellations, as well as taking steps to try to prevent another shortage.
Parents can now sign up to receive emails about bus delays. It means you will no longer have to keep refreshing a website to get updates in the morning.
Every bus is being equipped with GPS in time for the next school year. For now, that information will be used internally to track the buses. Eventually, the boards want to be able to share that information with parents so they can track the buses real-time themselves.
The boards are also increasing call centre staff during peak hours.
In an attempt to prevent future driver shortages, they are sharing bus routes with the operators sooner. One of the issues last year was that operators didn't know they didn't have enough staff for all the routes until it was too late.
NEWSTALK 1010 contributor and Toronto Star columnist Ed Keenan says the changes are encouraging and overdue.
"Information allows you to plan," he says. His three children were affected by last year's shortage.
"It's very, very frustrating when you don't know. When you're standing out there at the stop, you're late for work, your kids are late to school, and you have no way to find out if a bus is coming at all."
Keenan adds that the GPS feature is a big leap forward.
"It seems to me like entering the smartphone era."