TAMPA, Fla. — Ride share services are a quick, easy way to get from point A to point B, and now, they’re even replacing the traditional school bus for some students. 

The Hillsborough County School District utilizes two approved ride share services to transport between 400-500 students to and from school each day. The program costs about $4 million per year.

School officials say the ride shares are typically offered to students with certain special needs and students who fall under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. 

A typical morning for the Perez family includes Ashley Grullon-Perez getting her youngest child, Sophia, ready to head off to school. The family says the ride share service has been a huge blessing to them.

“This will be her driver, arriving in 6 minutes,” she said to Sophia, as she looked down at her cell phone at the EverDriven app. It’s an alternative transportation service for students.

Ashley says she was skeptical at first, because of her kids being in the car with strangers, but her fears were put to rest once she learned more about the service.

All drivers receive background checks just like all school employees, her kids have the same drivers every day, and she can track them on the app in real time.

The EverDriven app allows parents to track the cars in real time. (Spectrum News/Fallon Silcox)

“In there, I can see, to make sure, it’ll tell me just like an Uber — Toyota Corolla, the driver’s name, the license plate number — so I know for sure she’s getting in the right car, I’m not putting her in a strangers car,” she said.

Once Ashley kissed Sophia goodbye, she’s off and on her way to school. Ashley says it’s been a year full of hardship, and at first, she tried driving her three school aged kids every day, but it was nearly impossible.

“When we were displaced, I was driving them, and they were missing school — just the mechanics of the gas, the time, this one’s sick, this one’s late, I have to get to work — so there were certain days they just weren’t getting to school,” she said.

She says she wants her children to receive the best education they can, even through tough times, and the EverDriven app makes it possible for them to get to school on time. Next off to school is her 16-year-old son, Jake.

“They’re not losing time in the morning, they’re not wasting time in the evening, they’re on their actual school time, so that gives them back part of their day. It gives me back a lot of my day, to where now we can come home and have family time at dinnertime. It’s not we’re not in traffic, rushing home trying to do dinner and homework,” she said.

Ashley says that family time in the evenings is the best part of their day and thanks to this service, her family gets that time together.

“It’s been a very trying year, and this one little piece — I know they’re going to school, I know they’re getting their education, and I know they’re safe doing it.”

Hillsborough County school officials said the district started its contract with EverDriven in 2017 and it’s commonly used across the state, including Orange County, where it serves nearly 1,000 students each year.