Managing Parents

Parents in RouteBot are the guardians or family members who receive notifications about student transportation. Each parent can be linked to one or more students.

What is a Parent?

A Parent record in RouteBot represents:

  • A guardian or family member of a student
  • The person who receives transportation notifications
  • A contact for communication about the student's transportation

Parents receive:

  • Real-time notifications when the bus is approaching
  • Alerts about pickup and drop-off
  • Important updates about route changes or delays

Accessing Parents

  1. Click Users in the main navigation
  2. Select the Parents tab
  3. You'll see a list of all parents in your system

Creating a New Parent

To add a new parent:

  1. Click the Create New Parent button
  2. Fill in the required information

Required Fields

Field Description
School Select the school this parent is associated with
Name The parent's full name

Optional Fields

Field Description
Phone Number Mobile number for SMS notifications
Email Email address for communication
Identity Number Government ID number (optional)
Contact Address Home address for reference

Phone Number Format

When entering a phone number:

  1. Select the country code from the dropdown
  2. Enter the phone number without the country code
  3. The system validates that the number is in the correct format

Important: A valid phone number is required for parents to receive SMS notifications about their child's transportation.

Contact Address

The parent's address is optional but helpful for reference:

  1. Enter the address in the text field
  2. This is for contact purposes only
  3. Student pickup addresses are entered separately on the student record

Saving

Click Create to save the new parent. You can edit these details at any time.

Editing a Parent

To modify an existing parent:

  1. Go to Users > Parents
  2. Click on the parent you want to edit
  3. Update the desired fields
  4. Click Update to save changes

Linking Parents to Students

Parents are linked to students through the student record:

  1. Go to Users > Students
  2. Open the student you want to link
  3. In the Parent Information section, click Add Parent
  4. Search for and select the existing parent, or create a new one
  5. Save the student record

Note: One parent can be linked to multiple students (e.g., siblings), and one student can have multiple parents linked (e.g., mother and father).

Parent Notifications

Once a parent is linked to a student and has a valid phone number, they can receive:

  • Approach Notifications - SMS when the bus is getting close to the pickup location
  • Pickup Notifications - Confirmation when the student boards the bus
  • Drop-off Notifications - Confirmation when the student is dropped off
  • Delay Notifications - Alerts if there are delays or changes

Deleting a Parent

Warning: Deleting a parent will remove their connection to all linked students. Consider if you need to keep the record for historical data.

To delete a parent:

  1. Open the parent details
  2. Scroll to the bottom
  3. Click Delete
  4. Confirm the deletion when prompted

Best Practices

Complete Contact Information

  • Always enter a mobile phone number for SMS notifications
  • Verify the phone number is correct and can receive SMS
  • Add an email address as a backup contact method

Naming Convention

  • Use the parent's full legal name
  • This helps identify parents when linking to students

Multiple Parents

For students with multiple guardians:

  • Create a separate parent record for each guardian
  • Link all relevant parents to the student
  • Each linked parent can receive notifications

Data Privacy

  • Only collect necessary contact information
  • Parent data is only used for transportation-related notifications
  • Respect privacy preferences when sending communications

Next Steps:

Last updated: March 23, 2026