Is your child's bus running late? Need to know school holidays? There's an app for that
Indian River County schools is launching a revised app this school year, allowing families to get all information from one location. Martin and St. Lucie counties also have apps parents can download, including apps that will allow parents to follow bus-riding students.
Through Indian River's new app, which launched July 15, parents can log into student Focus accounts to monitor students' grades and assignments. They also can access links to school and district websites for alerts, news releases, school calendars, bus routes and how to pay for school meals.
"It's a home base for families," said spokeswoman Kyra Schafte. "We're still trying to max in our reach with it,"
The district needed an app that was more user-friendly than what it previously had Schafte admitted,
In Martin County, the app "Martin County Schools, FL" was created about two to three years ago, said spokeswoman Jennifer DeShazo. It's a way to access all information about the school district, she said in a text message.
"Although we've found most parents prefer text messaging or our website and e-newsletters to obtain most information," DeShazo added.
What to know about Florida sales tax holiday, St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River first days
Nominate a favorite Treasure Coast teacher for TCPalm's Teacher of the Week poll
St. Lucie school families also can download the "St. Lucie Public Schools" app for information on the school calendar, athletics and schools, as well as access parent resources such as school menus and a curriculum guide.
In 2024, Martin launched the MyReaXim app, allowing families to track school bus movement through GPS. The app, which was paid for by the state, allows families in Martin County to know when their child's school bus is approaching the bus stop and to know when their child gets on the school bus. Parents also can check remotely through the app when the bus arrives at school and get notifications if the bus experiences any delays.
St. Lucie schools uses the "Here Comes the Bus" app, which allows parents to track school bus location through GPS in real time. The district launched its pilot program of the app at Allapattah Flats K-8 school in 2017.
Indian River County parents can receive data from their app when their student gets on and off the bus, but the app lacks the capability to track students while they're on the bus, Schafte said. Students must swipe their ID when they get on and off the bus to allow for parents to accurately track their information, she said.
Colleen Wixon is the education reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. She covers school districts in Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Back to school: Treasure Coast districts apps keep parents informed
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Parents Who've Snooped Through Their Kids' Stuff Are Sharing The Weirdest Things They Found, And I Wasn't Ready For Some Of These
Sometimes, parents just can't help but get in their kids' business. But when you go snooping, you might find things you were never meant to see, from the perplexing to the downright horrifying. This was the topic of discussion in an AskReddit thread, where u/SensitiveCorner2379 asked, "Parents who've snooped through their teenagers' stuff, what's the weirdest thing you've ever come across?" Here's what all the nosy parents and their kids had to say: 1."I went to my 10-year-old daughter's school for parent-teacher conferences and opened her locker to take a look inside. There wasn't much in it, but lying at the bottom was a book from our local library about how to plan a wedding. Not a fun one with pictures of wedding dresses and stuff. It was called Wedding Rites: A Complete Guide to Traditional Vows, Music, Ceremonies, Blessings and Interfaith Services. I was baffled, and her teachers and I had a good laugh about it. When I got home and asked her about it, she explained she and her bestie were trying to marry their dogs to each other." —u/ghostguessed 2."My mom was going through my sister's room after she returned from a trip to Berlin. Nothing wild, just getting her laundry together. She found a small baggie of white dust and rocks. She tasted it to see if she could recognize the drug, and when she couldn't, she confronted my sister. It was small pieces of the Berlin Wall that my sister had chipped off as a keepsake. My mother ate the Berlin Wall." —u/briesneeze 3."An entire dresser drawer of dirty dishes and silverware." —u/Hour_Mathematician83 4."I don't snoop, but I do clean and organize from time to time. My teen knows this, and also knows that unless I find some really illegal shit, I'm not really worried. Having said that, I found a suit of armor he had made out of watermelon rinds that he forgot to toss out. Whole new ecosystem growing on it all." —u/OddLeeEnough 5."For my youngest, the worst thing we've found is a fart bag where she and her bestie were trying to save up farts. They had one at her bestie's house too — her mom made them throw it out, saying it was 'unsanitary.' I just howled and left it alone. A fart bag. Hilarious, why didn't I ever try that as a kid?!" —u/wimwood 6."My son was 15 at the time. I went into his room and tried to get him to clean it, because it was a damn disaster area. I was ranting at him, 'Look at all the garbage all over the floor! Look at the dirty dishes!' Then I spotted a drinking glass, like a pint glass, on the floor. I said, 'You have GLASS on the FLOOR where you could step on it and slice your foot wide open!' I leaned down and picked it up. It had stuff in it. I took a closer look. He had stuffed it with a couple of socks at the bottom and taped a nitrile glove over the top. The glass was slippery in my hand. I stood there looking at it with dawning horror as I realized that I'd found his homemade Fleshlight. I just set it down on the floor and walked out. We've never spoken of it since." —u/edgarpickle 7."I was the teenager getting snooped on. I had undiagnosed schizophrenia at the time, and I was building a time machine from old PC parts that I got from people's trash. Thankfully, my mom found it because the way I'd designed it, I was going to electrocute myself to send myself back in time. Unfortunately, when I found my time machine was gone, I thought the government was onto me and basically kicked myself out of the house so they wouldn't find me. I was 14 or 15 at the time. I'm medicated now and doing much better these days." —u/konoha37 8."A full human turd inside of an empty face wipe container. No toilet paper. I was more concerned than if I'd found a baggie of pot." —u/MooseMaster6000 9."'Science' experiments. Like the insides of stress balls emptied out. Hair gel mixed with glue. Glue mixed with stress ball goop. Pencils with layers of glue, like they'd been dipped. Glued fuzzy sticks — 'art,' apparently." —u/MsPennyP 10."My mom would snoop when I was a teenager. I got a diary and hid it. When she found it and opened it, all she found was, 'THOUGHT YOU FOUND SOMETHING GOOD, HUH?' in big writing. She laughed about it for the next 20-plus years. I miss her." —u/22grey 11."When I was a teen, my dad found homemade dildos I made out of pencils taped together, a sock, more tape, and Saran Wrap. He knew what it was and was mad. I wish he'd left it alone, but he confronted me, and I was adamant it was actually an art project. So, I painted them and left them on display to dry for weeks to try to prove my point." —u/salmontoothpaste 12."I once found the Subway wrapper to my sub that he 'helped me look for' five months prior — when I was eight months pregnant — under his bed. I was looking forward to that sub so badly. It had tomatoes and banana peppers on it, and when I saw he had taken them all off, it sent me into a rage. It just disappeared, and he helped me look for it in the refrigerator. It's been over seven years, he's 17 now, and I still bring it up." —u/Jaylamarie333 13."A rusted train nail. Not snooping. She folded it up in a sweatshirt to keep it safe, and I was putting away laundry. She thought it was an artifact. Couldn't believe something could be that rusty without being 100 years old." —u/SideBackground6932 14."When I was 19, I came home from a night out with my girlfriends to my mother, hysterical and crying, dramatically asking, 'How could you do this to me?!' She had found a sandwich bag with an unknown substance in it and somehow came to the conclusion that it was heroin, and I had secretly turned into a person addicted to drugs. It was small, bacon-flavored dog treats for our chihuahua, which I had portioned out so they wouldn't get stale. Pretty obvious that my mother had no idea what heroin looked like." —u/forestfairygremlin 15."Searching the kids' internet histories. Kid one: porn. So much porn. Kid two: 'How tall is the tallest bridge?' 'What layers can you see in the Grand Canyon?' 'Happy goat videos.' Kids, man." —u/AltrusiticChickadee 16."I was like 13, living in a rural area, and my best friend at the time was always up to something. For some reason, we got it in our heads that we could secretly raise chickens in the forest behind my house, so we bought an entire chicken starter kit, complete with feed, lights, and a book on how to do it right. We attempted to shoplift a few baby chicks in her sweater from the farm supply store, but got caught on the way out. The plan never materialized because no one would sell us baby chicks. Later, my mother found the starter stuff in my closet. It was a weird conversation. She was expecting to find drugs. She was mainly mad that the store didn't call her when we got caught attempting to shoplift baby chicks." —u/ingracioth 17."I found a notebook labeled 'Top Secret Plans.' Inside was a full blueprint for how they'd fake sick to skip school, complete with fake cough sound effects and backup crying strategy if I didn't buy it. I was half impressed, half offended. They even wrote: 'Mom might pretend to be mad, but she'll secretly respect the hustle.' They were right." —u/DeadBoneMusic 18."My dad was moving my car in the driveway, yelling out the car window about how it smelled like pot. He reached into the center console and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, 'And what about these?? I thought you didn't smoke cigarettes!' 'I don't, they're crayons.' Sure enough, the cigarette box was full of crayons. I was a stoner, not a cigarette smoker." —u/wildjabali 19."After he moved out, I found a huge pencil case with every single pen he had used throughout high school, like 90+ pens, all completely out of ink. I messaged him about it, and he's like, 'yeah, that's my pen graveyard,' like it was the most normal thing ever. It's not a homemade Fleshlight, but it definitely made me pause and wonder what kind of hoarder I'd created." —u/SternFern 20."A bucket full of snapping turtle eggs. My kid and their friend saw the turtle nesting, robbed the nest, and stashed the eggs near the heater, hoping to hatch babies. I wasn't really snooping, just trying to recover some missing dishes." —u/WakingOwl1 21."When my oldest daughter moved out, she thought she took her whole knife collection with her. Wrong. We found seven more knives over the course of the next year as we slowly cleaned the room out. Knives that she didn't even remember she had. It wasn't creepy like something was wrong with her, it was just like, 'how in the world do you amass this many collectible knives by the age of 18?'" —u/wimwood 22."At least eight glasses of water, like it was goddamn Signs. Literal piles of trash under her covers that she definitely slept with. Random half-eaten bags of various chocolates…so many. Just gobs of boogers on the headboards. Unopened Capri-Sun pouches that, based on flavor, are artifacts. Clustered used pimple patches on her dresser, in her dresser, on the walls — just so many. This child is an honors student, by the way." —u/donnerpartyintheusa 23."I found a pile of trimmed pubic hair under my high school-aged son's bed. I was just like 'Well, I guess someone's been shaving,' and threw it away in the trash and moved on with my day. Never said anything to him about it." —u/Ordinary_Ice_796 24."A YouTube watch history full of NJM insurance commercials. She's on the spectrum and was obsessed with insurance commercials for a minute." —u/pantsparty1322 25."I found a rolling machine in my teenage son's bedroom. I was horrified. He was only 13. I couldn't find any trace of weed in the machine, and it looked clean. I took a photo and sent it to my husband. He wrote back that it was a magic trick used to make banknotes disappear. LOL." —u/Evieveevee lastly, "I found while cleaning: a Costco-sized bag of grated Parmesan cheese with a spoon in it, sitting next to his bed." —u/donnahotterthnasauna Have you ever found any surprises hiding in your kids' rooms? Let me know in the comments! Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity. Solve the daily Crossword
-PR-Global-Exterior.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Condé Nast Traveler
21 hours ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
Museums at Indian Boarding Schools Are Shining Light on Their Survivors
'The original intent of this [school] was to destroy our culture,' says Stacey Montooth, executive director of the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs and citizen of the Walker River Paiute Nation. Together, under a cloudless Nevada sky in Carson City, she and I stroll the campus of the Stewart Indian School, a boarding school that opened in 1890 by the US government as part of a greater effort to force Indigenous children to assimilate—at all costs—into white society. As we walk along manicured lawns and past beautifully crafted stone buildings, which I later learn were built by Hopi stonemasons from Arizona, it's hard to picture the dark chapter of American history that unfolded here. Thanks to the preservation work of Montooth and others, there's no need to imagine: The proof lies in what's now a National Historic District that includes an audio-led walking trail of 20 stops along the campus and the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum. Held within the cultural center and museum are the complex stories of children who attended Stewart, oftentimes told in their own words, as well as artifacts like black-and-white photographs from the school's earliest days, vocational training textbooks that were used, and privilege passes that determined which activities students could attend or take part in. According to the boarding school's internal records, nearly 21,000 children were either kidnapped or coerced into attending Stewart. In an effort to strip them of their Native American culture and adapt them to 'appropriate American culture,' children were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing cultural traditions; their names were changed and hair cut; and contact with their families and communities was cut off. Many students also suffered deeply traumatic experiences, including physical and sexual abuse from teachers and staff.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
4 Things I've Tossed This Year That I Wish I Had Gotten Rid Of Sooner
True or False: It's exponentially easier to live a pared-down lifestyle when you don't give yourself enough square footage to accumulate things comfortably. The jury may be out on this one, but when it comes to our house, it's 100 percent true. Our family has always had a one-in-one-out rule when it comes to toys, we routinely clean out closets, and we've never found ourselves with enough space to warrant a 'play room.' We're quasi minimalists, though I'll admit there are some things that always seem to lurk around for longer than they should. Whether it's sentiment, nostalgia, or simply just putting something off that I don't feel like dealing with, there are a few lucky little items that have bought themselves more time in our shelves, drawers, cabinets, and closets than they have any right to. Maybe you'll take a gander at this list and realize there are a few items lurking around your home that you've held on to for far too long, too. If so, drop me a line because my clutter-loathing heart will be ever so happy to say adieu to anything else standing in the way of my dreams of finally achieving a perfectly edited home. Receipts I have no idea why I hang on to paper receipts like it's 1995. I recently happened upon an entire folder of them and realized I needed to take a quick inventory of my life. In the trash they went and the next time I hit the coffee shop and the barista asked if I wanted a receipt I said nope. Just kidding—bad habits don't die that quickly, but I did opt for a text receipt instead. Baby steps. Children's Books Our Family Has Outgrown I am a lover of all things literature, so saying goodbye to books is hard for me. That being said, well-loved toddler books, double copies, and a very creepy children's story gifted to our son by a well-meaning family friend certainly don't need to clutter our shelves. I've realized that letting go of books has to be kind of a phased process for me. I am able to whittle down to the good stuff, little by little. Each layer I take away reveals one more that I can also do without. Plus, it helps me not feel guilty for hanging onto our more cherished stories while also making room for age-appropriate books as the children get older. They're happy, and I'm ever so pleased to see them peruse our shelves to find their next good read. Plastic Cooking Utensils, Storage Containers, and More I am fully on board with the healthy-cooking bandwagon. Getting rid of flimsy plastic utensils, cutting boards that haven't aged well, and even damaged cookware has been a project of mine over the past year. Cookware is expensive—especially some of the high-quality pieces I'm slowly starting to accumulate, so it's been a gradual process, but one that I certainly wish I had started sooner. Tackling my kitchen clean-out is resulting in a more organized space, as well as one that reduces redundancies. I'm finding myself with more storage room in addition to a kitchen that's stocked with what I need to whip up meals in a flash, while actually enjoying the cooking process a bit more. It's a fine-tooth editing process that you shouldn't put off if you're considering taking the plunge. Start by tackling one small zone—maybe a storage container drawer or even a cooking utensils crock—and you'll soon find it snowballing from there. Random Appliances Vacuums I no longer use, a milk frother that's still in the box, and the most random of cold-press coffee brew kits sat taunting me for too long. I bet you're thinking, for a self-proclaimed minimalist, you sound a bit like a hoarder at this point. Honestly, sometimes I wonder too. It's true that I often find myself simply putting off getting rid of things because I don't want to deal with a run to our local donation site or putting a busted-up appliance down by the curb for trash pickup day. But all of these scenarios have one thing in common: Once they're out of the house, I feel lighter, brighter, and wish I had tackled the job sooner. Taking constant inventory of my spaces, room by room, closet by closet, and even drawer by drawer, can help make quick work of cleaning out. It helps ensure I don't find myself happening upon a cast-iron barbecue sauce baster three years from now, requiring a full-blown internet search to uncover what said random item even is. Off it goes to a household where it will hopefully be put to good use! So, now what remains? Nothing but a coffee table shoved into the corner of our guest room (just in case our next house has a basement—I know, I know) and a pair of swivel chairs in 'performance fabric' that never stood a chance with our young, peanut-butter-and-jelly-loving kiddos. Since we replaced them a week ago, we've been debating whether to pop them up on a marketplace or schedule a donation pickup. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Read the original article on Southern Living Solve the daily Crossword
