CalAmp (Nasdaq: CAMP), a global technology solutions pioneer transforming the mobile connected economy, today released findings of its “Back to School” survey of parents. The survey, conducted online in late July, found that two out of three parents support contact tracing. According to the report, parents would be more confident sending their kids back to school if contact tracing and hygiene verification were to be implemented on their children’s school buses.
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Other important findings from the “Back to School” survey include:
- Millions of fewer students plan to take the school bus this year indicating COVID-19 has shaken parent confidence:
- Only 43 percent of parents plan to use buses this school year, a 14 percent drop from the 50 percent of students who use the school bus in a typical school year
- Approximately 93 percent of parents want to know if their children’s classmates, teachers or school staff have contracted COVID-19
- Only 28 percent of parents said contact tracing and hygiene verification on their children’s school buses would not make them feel more comfortable
- 85 percent of parents believe students should observe physical distancing at school and on the bus
- 65 percent of parents believe students should be required to wear masks on the bus or in the classroom
CalAmp recently released Bus Guardian to help quell the fears many parents have about their children getting on school buses and going to school with the risks of COVID-19. CalAmp’s powerful suite of school bus hardware and software services is designed to help schools deliver instant and actionable reporting of school bus ridership for both drivers and students based on contact tracing, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists as essential to combating COVID-19.
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“We are fortunate that we invested in this technology years ago to improve our safety and efficiency, which has now enabled us to transition quickly and easily to provide contact tracing for the communities we serve,” said Elisa Schubert, transportation manager at Brightbill Transportation, a Pennsylvania private student transportation company. “We know how important it will be to track our hygiene efforts to remain at the forefront of this new kind of student safety.”
The solution also enables hygiene verification to help school administrators monitor and report on real-time sanitization efforts. Bus Guardian relies on enhanced school bus ridership and trip inspection modules currently being used by more than 230 school districts in the United States.
“Parents have come to rely on school buses to be among the safest form of transportation on the road. We’re proud Bus Guardian is helping schools maintain that essential commitment with contact tracing and hygiene verification to give parents the confidence they need to keep their children healthy and safe amid this pandemic,” said Jeff Gardner, president and CEO of CalAmp.
The “Back to School” online survey comprised nearly 1,000 respondents and was conducted from CalAmp-managed social media sites.
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