First View

First Student Inc.

About this app

For K-12 parents and caregivers, we understand the importance of a stress-free school commute for your student. That's why we've developed FirstView, our easy-to-use vehicle tracking app. FirstView allows you to plan your day and stay connected with your student's trips, regardless of the type of vehicle your student travels in. With FirstView:

- See real-time vehicle location and track its progress
- Easily monitor multiple students, including yellow school bus and special/alternative transportation journeys
- Quickly access updates and vehicle details for each trip
- Receive instant notifications and service alerts from your district
- Set up family members and caregivers to receive customizable trip update alerts
- Dedicated customer support at your fingertips

Ratings and reviews

The bus tracking aspect of the app is reliable. Distance based notifications are, however, not reliable. The app allows distance based notifications and the ability to notify email addresses. However I've setup, deleted and re-setup larger distance based notifications to no avail. The notifications will fire for a day or two and then completely stop working. First View commented saying they want to help on 11/26 but I've had 3 unresponded-to emails over weeks. Changed rating from 2 to 1 stars.

Disappointed. I am signed up for PM notifications and am only getting AM and support can't help me and now isn't even responding. They were trying to replicate my issue and were going to get back to me, but apparently since they can't figure out what is going on, I'm just not getting a response. And yes, I have cleared my cache, sign out, deleted, restarted. reinstalled etc and still no resolution.

The app does what it's designed to do and keeps track of my child's bus to a reasonable degree. What I find shortcoming however is the distance notification. Rather than base it on a radius around the stop, allow the user to mark a point (not radius) anywhere on the map and as soon as the bus reaches that point a notification will be sent. That gives the parent the heads up they need and prevents false notifications because the stop is too close to the road the bus happens to pass by.

What’s new

- Enhanced security with new tracking limits to help protect data.
- Improved accessibility to meet ADA standards, including clearer screen reader labels and smoother TalkBack navigation.
- Smarter push notifications — only get alerts during live tracking, not when backend updates adjust trip data later.
- Updated Spanish and Canadian French translations for a more accurate, consistent experience.

Have questions or feedback? We’d love to hear from you at [e-mail]