Challenge: Leander Independent School District (TX) needed a proactive, data-driven way to manage student transportation registration, reduce overcrowded and late buses, and improve service to families.
Solution: By implementing Let’s Talk for bus registration, the district modernized processes, centralized communications, and gained actionable insights to make route adjustments before the first day of school.
Results: Leander ISD now has a proactive approach to transportation operations, eliminating its weekly route review resolution meeting, reducing call center operations from two weeks to just 3 days, processed more than 16,500 registrations/inquiries for the 2025-2026 school year, and improved on-time arrival for thousands of student riders.
Leander Independent School District, which serves 49 campuses across 200 square miles near Austin, Texas, transports over 13,000 students each school year.
For years, the district had no formal bus registration process. Some routes were created based on potential eligible riders rather than actual students who planned to ride. This led to a common every-year scenario: overcrowded buses, late arrivals to school, and reactive troubleshooting.
“Our drivers will never leave a student behind at a stop,” said Valerie Williams, Senior Router, Special Projects at Leander ISD. “But without accurate ridership data, we started every year putting out fires and playing catch-up.”
Transportation’s routing team have made many attempts to track student transportation needs and have relied on multiple systems — from notes in its previous routing software to labor-intensive manual workarounds using Microsoft Task and later Google Keep. Data in student’s records were often lost when students did not attend the first day of school, transferred schools, withdrew, or temporarily left the district.
Communication inefficiencies also slowed service. In the past, campus staff submitted bus service requests on behalf of parents, often before the family was ready to use transportation or without clear service details (morning only, afternoon only, or both). The process required significant back-and-forth and often delayed accurate route assignments.
While Leander ISD had previously used Let’s Talk in other departments, transportation leaders saw an opportunity to implement it for bus registration and operations.
“When we learned what Let’s Talk could do, the wheels started turning,” Williams said. “We realized we could use it to register students for transportation because our current routing software doesn’t have that ability.”
Leander ISD launched Let’s Talk as a centralized bus registration system integrated with the district’s student information system, enabling:
Since Let’s Talk is web-based, parents and guardians can register from any device—desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone. It also offers forms with built-in translation into 13 languages, improving accessibility for non-English-speaking families. By registering directly through Let’s Talk, parents can indicate exactly when they’re ready for service and specify whether they need transportation to school, from school, or both.
This shift put control directly in the hands of families, eliminating the need for campus staff to act as intermediaries and ensuring the routing department receives complete, accurate information from the start.
The first year of implementation in Leander ISD’s transportation department highlighted both the scale of the challenge and the benefits of the solution:
“Let’s Talk has been a game changer for our transportation team,” Williams said. “It gives us the tools to be proactive instead of reactive, which means fewer problems for our families and a smoother start to the school year.”
By transforming its transportation registration process with Let’s Talk, Leander ISD has improved service reliability, reduced operational stress, and created a sustainable framework for future growth.
Connect with our team to learn how Let’s Talk can make a powerful difference in your district’s transportation service delivery.
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