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 tracker is very accurate for the regular school bus, which always has the same driver and the same vehicle. However, we are very disappointed in the tracking accuracy for special needs transport. The tracker follows the vehicle, not the route. We have had multiple experiences over the years where the regular vehicle was sent to a different route. This makes for either inaccurate or no information about the actual bus on our route.

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.

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

This release includes bug fixes and usability improvements to give our students’ families an even better vehicle tracking experience.

If you experience any app issues or have feedback, contact us at [e-mail].