About 5,000 McAllen Independent School District students rely on a school bus to get to and from class.

On the first day back, the district's superintendent got on board to see that trip home for himself.

For students at Thigpen-Zavala Elementary School, the first day of school isn't over when the final bell rings. There's still the ride home, and before bus number eight pulls away, staff are checking who's getting on.

"First of all, we have our parents sign our students up for the bus and then we have a checklist in which we ensure that every student that has permission to be on the bus, is on the bus. That way we know exactly where they are at the end of the day," Thigpen-Zavala Elementary School Principal Marisela Chapa said.

About 27 students rode bus number eight on Monday.

Districtwide, McAllen ISD said about 5,000 of its roughly 19,500 students ride the bus to and from school.

Sixty bus routes are on the schedule and on the route for bus number eight, there was one extra passenger.

"For me as superintendent of schools, this is the first time that I ride the bus on the first day of class. So, I'm excited to be a part of it and to be with the students here in the bus. It's a new experience for me," McAllen ISD Superintendent Dr. Rene Gutierrez said.

The ride is part of an initiative called Inside The Route. Gutierrez said the idea is to get district leaders out of their offices and see firsthand what students and bus drivers experience every day. And stop by stop, he got to watch it happen.

"What I'm noticing is how the parents are waiting for the students as they get dropped off at each of their streets. Parents are waiting and they're expecting us to be there and we're going to be there," Gutierrez said.

The reason why the person waiting at the bus stop matters is because drivers don't just let a child off. An adult has to be at the bus stop to receive them, and on Monday, some students didn't have anyone waiting when their bus arrived.

So they were taken right back to the school.

"Some of the children came back to school because the parents were not on location. So if a parent, or an adult, is not on location, the safety trumps everything else. So the bus drivers will bring everybody back to school and we'll make sure that we contact parents to make sure that they get home safe," Chapa said.

The district said parents are told their child's bus stop ahead of time and they can also use a bus tracker app to see where the bus is and how close it is to their stop.

Gutierrez is asking parents for some patience these first few days as traffic can slow drive time.

"Just to be a little patient with us, with the transportation, because of traffic, but in the next couple of days things will go smooth, very smooth and we'll be able to take their kids home a lot sooner," Gutierrez said.

Watch the video above for the full story.