Every student at South Lakes High School, Langston Hughes Middle School and Reston's eight elementary schools will receive a new student ID card before the first day of school on Monday, August 24. Bus riders must tap it when they get on and off the bus.

The cards use radio-frequency identification technology. When a student taps the card on a reader near the bus door, the driver's tablet displays the child's name, assigned stop and boarding time, according to FCPS's July 21 announcement. The system lets the district's Office of Transportation track which students are on which bus in real time.

If a child forgets or loses the card, the driver can manually check them in on the tablet. No student will be left at the curb.

FCPS Bus Driver Supervisor Lei Shi, whose team piloted the driver tablets during the 2025-26 school year before the tap cards were added, told FFXnow in a July 23 report that the early response was encouraging.

"I'm confident that when everyone knows how to use the system, gets used to it, it will be a very powerful tool," Shi said.

The cards are color-coded by school and include the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number on the back, as Virginia law has required since 2023. Every student receives one, even those who don't ride a bus, because FCPS plans to expand the card's use to school meals and field trips. The district said those additional services will be announced as they launch.

A new parent notification app will replace Here Comes the Bus later in fall 2026, showing real-time bus locations and alerting parents when their child boards or exits. FCPS has not announced a specific launch date.

The technology rollout coincides with FCPS phasing in revised school boundaries approved by the school board in January 2026. More than 900 affected students were given the option to stay at their current school, but bus transportation to the old school is available only for high school students who opted out of their new assignment.

Superintendent Michelle Reid explained the system in a video released with the July 21 announcement. Parents with questions can reach the FCPS Office of Transportation at fcps.edu/about-fcps/contact-us/transportation-services.