Law & Courts

Student-Tracking Devices in School Badges Spark Controversy

By Jennifer Radcliffe, Houston Chronicle (MCT) — October 19, 2010 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Radio-frequency identification—the same technology used to monitor cattle—is tracking students in two Texas school districts, helping the school systems save thousands of dollars in state funds for student attendance, but raising serious privacy concerns.

Identification badges for some students in both school districts now include tracking devices that allow campus administrators to keep tabs on students’ whereabouts on campus. School leaders say the devices improve security and increase attendance rates.

“It’s a wonderful asset,” said Veronica Vijil, the principal of Bailey Middle School in the 31,000-student Spring Independent School District in Houston, one of the campuses that introduced the high-tech badges this fall.

But some parents and privacy advocates question whether the technology could have unintended consequences. They worry that hackers could figure a way to track students after they leave school. And identity theft and stalking could become serious concerns, some say.

“There’s real questions about the security risks involved with these gadgets,” said Dotty Griffith, the public education director for the ACLU of Texas. “Readers can skim information. To the best of my knowledge, these things are not foolproof. We constantly see cases where people are skimming, hacking, and stealing identities from sophisticated systems.”

The American Civil Liberties Union fought the use of this technology in 2005, when the 470-student Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, Calif., was thought to be the first in the United States to introduce the badges. The program was dismantled because of parental concerns.

Just last month, another school in California, the Head Start program at the George Miller III Center in Richmond, Calif., used federal stimulus money to buy tags for preschool students, drawing national attention and outrage.

Recovering Funding

The Spring district in Texas has been steadily expanding its system since December 2008. Currently, about 13,500 of the district’s 36,000 students have the upgraded badges, which are just slightly thicker than the average ID tag to allow for the special embedded computer chip.

Chip readers placed strategically on campuses and on school buses can pick up where students are—or at least where they left their badges. The readers cannot track students once they leave school property, said Christine Porter, Spring’s associate superintendent for financial services.

The biggest benefit so far has been recovering attendance funding at middle and high schools. Every day, the district uses the tracking system to check on the whereabouts of students counted absent by classroom teachers. Often, the students are somewhere else on campus, allowing the district to recover $194,000 in state funding since December 2008, according to district officials.

The technology easily pays for itself within about three years at secondary schools, Ms. Porter said.

Students haven’t complained much about the new badges, according to school officials. Most are used to being electronically monitored; their campuses have had surveillance cameras for years.

But some students say the badges can make someone feel a little uneasy.

“It feels like someone’s watching you at all times,” said Jacorey Jackson, a 6th grader at Bailey Middle School.

Classmate Kamryn Jefferson admitted that it feels a bit awkward to know adults can track her every movement on campus, but she understands the benefits. “It makes you mindful knowing you could get caught if you do something wrong,” she added.

In the case of a fire, administrators would be able to see if any students were trapped inside a building. If students disappear, administrators will know exactly when they left campus.

Without fanfare, the 4,400-student Santa Fe Independent School District in Texas followed Spring’s lead and introduced the special ID tags at its secondary schools this fall. The district says it has received few complaints about the mandatory badges.

“It’s a very secure system,” said Patti Hanssard, a district spokeswoman. “There’s no data to confirm that there’s any health or safety risks.”

Safety Risk?

Parent Jennifer Alvarez said she has several concerns about the technology—from whether the chips could have negative health implications to whether predators could hack into the system.

“While we can control our district and have good intent, we do not control other outside persons,” she said. “The system ultimately puts students at a safety risk if bad intent is acted upon—a factor we do not control.”

State officials were surprised to learn about the technology, and urged districts to offer an alternative to families with concerns.

“They can’t deny a kid an education for refusing to use it,” Texas Education Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said. “They can take disciplinary action, but they can’t deny an education.”

School security consultant Kenneth Trump, the president of National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland, said schools also should be prepared for unintended glitches as they introduce the technology.

“Too often, we see well-intended ideas implemented, and a year or two down the road, our assessments find huge disparities in what people believe is being done and what is actually happening in day-to-day practice,” he said. “School security equipment gets installed, and there is a lot of buzz about it, and two years down the road it is not in use, not being used properly, or out of service due to the lack of ongoing funds for maintenance, repair, replacement, or day-to-day operating costs.”

Copyright (c) 2010, Houston Chronicle. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
A version of this article appeared in the October 20, 2010 edition of Education Week as Student-Tracking Devices Save Money, Raise Concerns

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Oklahoma Nonbinary Student's Death Shines a Light on Families' Legal Recourse for Bullying
Students facing bullying and harassment from their peers face legal roadblocks in suing districts, but settlements appear to be on the rise
11 min read
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school restroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines Case on Selective High School Aiming to Boost Racial Diversity
Some advocates saw the K-12 case as the logical next step after last year's decision against affirmative action in college admissions
7 min read
Rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., Aug. 10, 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. A federal appeals court’s ruling in May 2023 about the admissions policy at the elite public high school in Virginia may provide a vehicle for the U.S. Supreme Court to flesh out the intended scope of its ruling Thursday, June 29, 2023, banning affirmative action in college admissions.
A group of rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., in August 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 declined to hear a challenge to an admissions plan for the selective high school that was facially race neutral but designed to boost the enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Law & Courts School District Lawsuits Against Social Media Companies Are Piling Up
More than 200 school districts are now suing the major social media companies over the youth mental health crisis.
7 min read
A close up of a statue of the blindfolded lady justice against a light blue background with a ghosted image of a hands holding a cellphone with Facebook "Like" and "Love" icons hovering above it.
iStock/Getty
Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
12 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP