Rochester Community Schools families can track their children's school buses in real time using a free app the district promoted Tuesday, Sept. 1.

The district, led by Superintendent Nicholas Russo, and its transportation contractor, Durham School Services, announced the Edulog Parent Portal app on X. The app is free on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Once set up, the Edulog Parent Portal shows each bus's live GPS position and sends customizable alerts as the bus nears a student's stop. Parents can set a notification zone between 0.1 and 2.0 miles, letting them time when to send children outside. The app also displays planned pickup and drop-off times and stop locations.

How to sign up

To register, parents need five pieces of information: the student's first name, last name, assigned school, date of birth and student ID number. One registration covers all students in a household for whom the parent has the required information. The app is available in English and Spanish.

Bus assignments, including bus numbers and stop locations, can also be found in ParentVUE or StudentVUE accounts. Families with questions can call the transportation department at 248-726-5925.

Fleet and rollout context

RCS owns 88 full-sized general education buses and 36 smaller special education buses. The district's transportation page lists setup instructions under the Durham School Services section.

The rollout hit a brief snag. On Aug. 28, the district posted on X that the Edulog platform needed updates and that families might experience intermittent outages. The Sept. 1 announcement promoting the app came after that notice. The same outage warning remained posted on the district's transportation page as of Sept. 1, suggesting the update issue may not yet be resolved.

The district is closed for Labor Day recess Friday, Sept. 4, through Monday, Sept. 7. Classes resume Tuesday, Sept. 8.