Parents in the D.C. area can now use an app to arrange rides for their kids to get to and from places like school and soccer practice. It’s sort of like a standard ridesharing app, except the passengers are kids, the rides are arranged hours in advance, and the drivers are trained caregiving professionals.

HopSkipDrive, a ride-sharing company for kids, launched its service this week in Northern Virginia with plans to expand further in the region in coming weeks.

The service allows parents to book rides for their kids, 6 and older.

“We think of it more like caregivers on wheels,” says Joanna McFarland, co-founder and CEO of HopSkipDrive.

The Washington region is the Los Angeles-based company’s first market on the East Coast. It launched operations Monday in Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County, and plans to launch service in D.C. over the next several weeks. The service will come to Maryland in the next several months, McFarland says.

She says the company chose the D.C. region because of its large commuting population. The District’s population grows by nearly 80 percent every day with working commuters.

“It has a lot of the characteristics that are similar to L.A. — traffic is a little bit of a nightmare, and you’ve got a lot of families commuting,” McFarland says.

Parents can book rides on the HopSkipDrive app eight hours in advance, or by 7 p.m. the evening before for rides the next morning. Parents can also book recurring rides each week, like McFarland does for her 11-year-old son Jackson. A driver takes him to Karate class after school each Thursday.

Once the parent books a ride, he or she will get a confirmation with the driver’s photo and profile. When the driver arrives, they will ask the child a codeword that the parent and child has come up with in advance — and ask for the child’s birthday to confirm. The parent will then get real-time updates about the ride.

Rides start at about $20, and the average ride costs around $25.

“It’s similar to the hourly rate of a driving babysitter,” McFarland says

The drivers, called “Caredrivers,” have at least five years of caregiving experience and have passed a 15-point certification process, including fingerprinting, background checks and driving checks. The company has a network of more than 4,000 drivers across the country, and is working on adding drivers in the northern Virginia area, McFarland says.

“Safety goes both ways. Caredrivers really like that they’re not driving late at night, they’re not driving drunk people, and they get to plan their day around it. They know exactly when and where they’re driving and can stay close to home,” she says.

The company also partners with 150 schools and school districts around the country, including in northern Virginia, McFarland says. She didn’t disclose which schools are participating locally.

This story first appeared on WAMU.