INDIANAPOLIS — A new scanning system will keep track of students and provide safety for school buses in Perry Township Schools.

Now, when students get on and off a school bus they have to scan a lanyard which lets the bus driver know if kids are at the right place.

Originally the district planned to use the GPS tracking just for the buses, but decided the technology could also work for students as well.

“What this allows us to do is, we always know where that child is,” said Patrick Murphy, transportation director for Perry Township Schools. “So if a child doesn’t get on the school bus in the morning, we know the child wasn’t on the bus. If the child doesn’t scan off in the afternoon we know the child could still be on the bus.”

The technology is meant to make sure each student gets safety to their destination, since kids sometimes get off at the wrong stops.

Perry Township school officials say it doesn’t add a lot of time to the loading and unloading, students have a lanyard they just hold up to the scanner.

The district has also made it where parents can track the school bus to see if their child got on or off correctly.

“They can go through their Skyward account and they can track where the bus is,” said Murphy.

He adds that the bus drivers also like having the technology because it allows them to know exactly who is on their bus and provides an accurate count of riders.