Website Helps Parents find Rides for Royal Oak Students

For working parents or families with one car, figuring out how to get students to school can be a challenge, especially when winter arrives and shorter days mean walking to school in the dark on icy sidewalks.

The Royal Oak school district eliminated bus transportation for as many as 1,800 students last fall to save $500,000. Since, it has developed a School Pool Program that may help. It allows parents to form car pools and help each other get students to and from school.

Signing up is safe and easy, according to the Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools website

The system is designed to ensure privacy. When you sign up as a parent, you are initially blocked from viewing rides until you have been approved. The approval process is done by the school, which confirms you have a student attending that school. Once your school verifies your student's enrollment, you will be able to look for rides.

The system does not reveal any direct contact information until the parent is ready. No last names, addresses, or phone numbers are displayed. Contact is done via a built-in email function with email addresses hidden.

To enroll, users provide personal information, which is hidden, and the closest cross streets. The only information revealed to other users is gender and age.

When someone is ready to carpool, the system sends an email. A voice message can be sent to your home phone or a text message to your cell phone.

A function allows users to indicate driving choices, such as smoking preference, radio use, number of seat belts and whether you want to share driving responsibly.

The district website has a step-by-step tutorial. For more information click here.

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