The five minutes nobody needed
A child has a fever, or is going to a wedding, and simply does not come down to the stop. The driver waits. Then waits a little longer, because a missing child is not something anyone is willing to be casual about. Somebody calls the school office, the office calls the parent, and a bus with thirty children on it loses five minutes on a route that had none to spare.
None of that was needed. The parent knew the night before. There was just no way to say it that would reach the person actually standing at the stop.
One tap on the home screen
In the Bharat Tracker parent app, the child's card on the home screen answers exactly that question. Mark them as not riding today and the bus knows before it leaves. Changed your mind — the fever passed, the wedding is in the evening — take it back the same way.
Why the window closes, and when
You can change your mind, but not for ever. The window shuts at the first of two things: your child taps on or off the bus today, or their stop time passes.
The first is obvious — if the bus has them, nothing a parent taps afterwards can make that untrue. The second is the one that matters day to day: a child who stayed home never scans anything, so the only thing that can close the window is the clock. Once the bus has been and gone, the day stops being an intention and becomes a record.
What the driver actually sees
At the stop, the child's row is greyed and labelled — not removed. That distinction is deliberate: a child whose parent said no can still walk up to the bus with a bag on their shoulder, and a driver whose list had quietly deleted them would have no way to take them on board.
The stop card also carries a count, so a driver never has to work out who is missing by counting faces against photos.
- A greyed row with a clear “not riding” label — readable at a glance, which is all a driver has.
- A per-stop count, for example “1 not riding”, next to the boarded count.
- The child stays on the list, so they can still be marked on board if they turn up.
What it does to the attendance record
The attendance calendar in the app gives every school day one of four honest answers, each with its own colour.
- Present — the child was scanned onto the bus.
- Not riding — the parent said so beforehand. Amber and named, never a red “absent”, because nobody did anything wrong.
- Absent — the bus ran, there was no scan, and nobody said why.
- No bus — no trip started that day, so there was nothing to attend.
One set of numbers
The counting happens on the server, and both the parent app and the school dashboard render what it sends. A parent and a transport in-charge looking at the same month therefore see the same totals — which is the only way a conversation about attendance ends in agreement instead of two phones held up side by side.
हिंदी में: आज बच्चा बस से नहीं जाएगा
अगर आज आपका बच्चा स्कूल नहीं जा रहा, तो Bharat Tracker ऐप के होम स्क्रीन पर एक टैप में बता दीजिए। ड्राइवर को स्टॉप पर ही पता चल जाएगा और बस इंतज़ार नहीं करेगी।
मन बदल जाए तो उसे वापस भी लिया जा सकता है — लेकिन सिर्फ़ तब तक, जब तक बस आपके स्टॉप तक न पहुँच जाए। उसके बाद वह दिन रिकॉर्ड बन जाता है, और उसे स्कूल ऑफ़िस ही बदल सकता है।
Frequently asked questions
Until when can a parent mark a child absent?
Until the first of two things happens: the child is scanned onto or off the bus today, or their stop time passes. After that the day is a record and can no longer be changed from the app — ask the school office instead.
Does the driver still see my child on the list?
Yes. The row is greyed and labelled as not riding, but it is never removed — so if your child turns up at the stop anyway, the driver can still take them on board and mark them present.
Will it show as an absence on the attendance record?
No. A day you informed the school about shows as “not riding” in amber, separate from a red “absent”, which appears only when the bus ran, there was no scan and nobody said why.
Can I mark two children, or a whole week, at once?
Each child is marked from their own card, so a phone following two children marks each separately. Marking is per day — the app asks again tomorrow, which stops a forgotten week-long mark from hiding a child who did come.
