The first tab available in the EZRouting site is the student tab. This is where you can view specific students or specific groups of students, see where they live, edit student information, and set the student’s transportation plan and bus schedule.

Student List Page

On the student list page, there is a general hub for most every menu you'd like to access. On the left you will see specific student points you are working with. Whereas on the right you will see a map overview of these student points you are working with.

A typical student data entry will look like this: When you hover over the three dots next to the student’s name, these five icons will appear. From left to right, they are student sheet, send message to this student, delete student, edit student location, and edit student. The edit student button (pencil icon) will be the most frequently used.

Symbols/Indicators

There are many symbols/indicators appearing next to student's basic information. These icons provide you with related transportation information at a glance.

Below are all icons shown on student list page and their meanings in EZRouting.

Menu Bar

On the student list page, EZRouting has six dropdown menus and one search bar. This is the general hub for most every menu you’d want to access.

1. Filters – provides a wide variety of ways to filter students flexibly;
2. Schools – filter students by certain school(s);
3. Grades – filter students by certain grade(s);
4. Vehicles – filter students by certain vehicle(s);
5. Operations – provides many student-related functions;
6. Reports – generate reports containing specific student information for a vast array of different needs;
7. Search bar – Search student by typing name, ID, contact phone number, or address.

Student Record Page

After you open one student record by clicking on the pencil icon, you will be given a wide variety of fields that you can view and/or edit.

General

The first of these is ‘general’ where general student information can be viewed and edited, including student name, student ID, student grade and school, and any special modifications the student requires, such as an IEP or bus aide.

• Groups of students that are part of the same family or that live in the same household can be assigned the same family id to make it easier to keep track of family bus schedules the family id can be viewed and edited by going to the students tab then entering edit mode for a particular student the family id is located in the general information section if a student has one or more siblings with the same family id it will show next to the family id label additionally the label family id can be clicked on the view at a glance

  Information about all siblings including name grade school and routing status identical bus schedules can be copied to any or all siblings simply click the check box next to a sibling's name and then click the copy schedules button and also family ids can be filtered in the students tab enter the students tab and then click on filters there is a filter set called family id that can search for students with or without family id with or without siblings or search by family id

Address

The next menu available is ‘addresses. This enables you to view the student’s primary and/or mailing and/or secondary address. Each address can be given a nickname, and the walking distance from this address to the student’s school is displayed.

• If you would like to geocode a student's address by latitude and longitude or by clicking directly on the map, first navigate to the Students tab and select the student whose address you'd like to geocode. Hover over the three dots to the right of their name and select the pencil icon, then navigate to the Addresses menu.

  If the student already has an address listed, you can click on the sliding Geocode option. Otherwise, click on Add Address, then click on the sliding Geocode option.

  From here, you can type in the student’s latitude and longitude and click the red button to re-geocode the student based on the coordinates you've typed in. You can also click the middle button to call a geocoding service to get the coordinates of the address saved for the student.

  Alternatively, you can click the leftmost button to choose a location directly on the map. Click the button, then click where you would like the student address to be placed on the map.

  Remember to click the Save button at the top toolbar to save your changes.

Transportation Plans

Next is the ‘transportation plans’ menu, which enables the user to choose the pickup and drop-off stops a student “should” have along with an estimated time of when the student should be picked up. These transportation plans enable the user to be flexible in how often the plan repeats (weekly, monthly, etc.) and provide a date range for when this transportation should take place.

• Student transportation plans show you the desired routes requested for a student and are often created by the student's parents or guardians. They are not necessarily the same as the bus schedule, which is the actual routing information for the student.

  You can create as many transportation plans as required, and for each one, you can set the desired pickup and drop-off stops as well as the stop times. Keep in mind that AM and PM trips are designated separately and that AM trips last until 11:59 a.m. Likewise, PM trips begin exactly at 12:00 p.m.—so if a bus leaves school at 12:00 p.m., this is considered to be a PM trip.

  You can also change the recurrence of these plans and determine how often they should be repeated. If a stop has not yet been created for the student, you can click on the green plus button to create a stop at the student's primary address without ever having to navigate to the Stops tab.

  When you are done creating the transportation plan or plans for the student, click the Save button.

Bus Schedules

The ‘bus schedules’ menu shows what trips the student will actually take on any given day. These trips are color-coded in a provided calendar with details below, like this:

On the map, orange dots are stops. Blue dots are students’ addresses. Pink dots are the students attending school.
If a student does not currently have a bus schedule, you can click ‘search and add bus schedule’, which will provide a set of options for the student’s bus schedule. If no routes are found for the student, you can click on ‘add a planned stop to a route’ to add the student’s stop to an existing route that doesn’t currently stop at this stop. These routes will be listed with an estimated duration increase in the overall trip. Once you have selected the trips you would like the student to take, simply click ‘accept’.

• Bus schedules show the student's actual routing information. You can either check the schedule info from the list page or open a student record and check the Bus Schedules panel. This is shown in both the calendar view as well as in a list below.

  You can view each trip the student will take, including the pickup and drop-off locations and times. You can also see the recurrence of each of these trips, which are even easier to visualize in the calendar view.

  In the event that they're needed, you will also see two buttons that allow you to Search and Add a Bus Schedule automatically for the student and to Manually Add a Bus Schedule.

• If you would like to search and add bus schedules for a student, first verify that the student is both an active student and a rider. This can be verified under Student General Information.

  Next, click on the Bus Schedules panel under the student. Click on the button that says Search and Add Bus Schedule.

  While searching for routes, you can use the weekday checkboxes to filter for only routes applicable for those days. If no existing routes are found, you can check the Add Plan Stop to a Route box, and the system will populate with potential schedules along with the overall route duration increase.

  Click on the route you would like to assign to the student, and then click the green Accept button to save your changes. The small red plus sign represents that the system will create and add the stop to the route you select.

  If the student has transportation plans, the function will search available schedules based on transportation plans.

Contacts

The ‘contacts’ menu provides both a student’s primary contact and other contacts listed with the student. From here, it is easily seen if the phone number a contact has on file is a cell phone, and if it can receive text messages. It is also easily viewed if there is an email address on file for the student.

Related Links: how to send real-time notifications https://youtu.be/w9pAtobjmSc

Student Info

In the ‘Student Info’ section, you can add comments and critical alerts for students. You can also create medical and equipment needs for a student that will be selectable.

Ridership History

(The section is integrated with SafeDrive360 App.)
This section provides actual data of what bus or buses the student has ridden. This can be viewed in calendar view (by default) or by list view by clicking the ‘list view’ button.

• The Safe Driver 360 app is fully integrated with the Easy Routing platform. The system captures student ridership data, providing schools and families with safety, security, and peace of mind.

  Administrators can check real driving paths on the Easy Routing website. In the Routes tab, open a route and expand a trip that has been run, then click the Show Tablet History button. That day's driving path will appear on the map, marked with a dotted line.

  You can apply the timestamp from the tablet as the official stop time. You can also apply the attendance record from the tablet to update student assignments. For example, Jermaine Simons is an unplanned student at this stop, but she is going to take this bus for the rest of the school year. You can check the green tick button and save the assignment for her.

  To check students' real pickup times and locations, you can zoom in on the map and click these small dots.

  Administrators can also check student ridership data from the Students tab. Open a student record, scroll down, and click on Ridership History. Below the calendar, you will see when the student was dropped off and picked up. If the student takes the wrong bus or gets on at the wrong stop, the system will mark this as unplanned.

  You can also filter students by ridership to see who has been on the bus, who has not been on the bus, and who used an unplanned stop.

User Defined Fields

Clients have the option to add certain additional fields they would like to keep track of. In this section, client-created UDFs are available for review or to be changed. UDFs can take the form of a checkbox, dropdown menu, text, date, and number. When you are done modifying a student’s UDF menu, click ‘save’.

• User-defined fields can be found in every tab and are used to keep track of information that isn’t already built into our software. You can create a user-defined field by going to Settings > General > User-Defined Fields.

  There are endless possibilities with UDFs, and they can be made for students, schools, vehicles, staff, stops, routes, and trips. Your user-defined field can take the form of text, a number, a date, a checkbox, or a list, depending on what kind of information you want to keep track of. The List UDF allows you to create a dropdown menu with as many options as you would like. The Group UDF allows you to create a heading for a group of UDFs.

  You can create new UDFs by clicking the Add button. Give your UDF a name, and you can customize the size of it if desired. An example of a UDF may be that you want to track if your students are football players. You could create a UDF that is a checkbox called Football Player and check it for students who are.

  You can also filter items by UDFs, as long as the magnifier is enabled as green. For example, we can filter out all football players under the Student tab.

Attachments

This section is provided so that schools may attach important relevant documentation about students to their student profiles. These can be attached by clicking the ‘file’ button, and comments for the upload can be added. You can then click ‘upload’ to add the attachment to the student’s profile.
Additionally, you may view attachments by clicking on their name, edit attachments by clicking on the pencil icon and delete attachments by clicking on the trash can.

Change Request History

The change request history is provided to see when students have required an update to their transportation plan and/or bus schedule. The history includes several pieces of information, including who requested the change, when it was requested if this is a new student and the status of the request.
More details of the change request can be seen by clicking the ‘view’ button on the right.

• The EZRouting system is designed to automatically update student data overnight each night. To check the information that is being imported, you can go to the General Settings under Data Sync. You will be able to see the date and time that the last data sync was executed. You can also download the Last Sync file to see the student information that was most recently imported.

  In addition, you can check the SIS file transfer date by clicking the Download File in SFTP Folder. If desired, you can make modifications to the import process using the checkboxes provided.

• In some cases, EZRouting provides linkable options for some new student requests. This is because the system finds existing similar student records with the same name and date of birth. This usually happens when a student ID changes.

  For example, we receive a new request called Lorena Hart with ID 104. After opening the request detail page, we see a similar record is found with ID 10984. It has the same date of birth and name as ID 104. If we are sure that the two records are duplicates and for one student, we can link them into one record by clicking the Link. After that, the new student request will be converted into a regular change request. You can click Accept to save the new ID for the student.

  If we approve the new record directly, we will get two duplicated records for the student. For example, if we approve the Lorena Hart record with ID 104 directly, we will get two records for the student. The old one with ID 10984 will be marked as Withdrawn, since ID 10984 is not included in the SIS file anymore.

  Sometimes, the old record might have bus schedules and be linked to a parent. We might not want to lose the bus assignments and the linked parent info. To merge the two records, you can delete the new record and wait for a new round of data sync to link them.

Communication History

The communication history is provided to see all forms of communication that have been sent from our system to a student’s parent(s) and/or guardian(s). In this tab, you can see the type of message (text or email), where and when the message was sent, and the contents of the message.

• You can use the Real-Time Notifications feature to send text messages and/or emails to students, parents, and bus drivers. Applying a filter to your list of students will limit who the notification gets sent to, and you can also individually select or deselect students from the list.

  Below the message field, type your message or use one of the provided message templates, and select if it should be sent as a text, email, or both. The provided message templates include a template for all bus schedules for a student and a template for just today’s bus schedule.

  You can review how your message will look for a particular student before sending it by clicking the View button under View Content for the student you'd like to preview. When you're finished writing your message, simply click the Send button.