In a forum I frequent, someone recently posted an article about tracking ID tags that students in one California school district were required to wear. Essentially, the device is an ID badge that sends off a radio frequency that is detected by a receiver over the door of the classroom. Parents are concerned that it will rob their children of their privacy. I agree that the issue raises some concerns, but the right to privacy isn't one of them.

At this stage, the students are "tracked" only when they enter or leave a classroom. That's no different, in truth, than a teacher taking attendance. It's just that it's not a teacher taking the attendance, it's an electronic card. It would not be much different than, say, placing a turnstile outside each door except that a turnstile is not be able to tell the teacher WHO came through, just how many came through. You could record both who and how many by requiring each student to sign in when they entered a classroom. Essentially, these cards free up a couple minutes of the teacher's time that would be spent taking attendance.

But truth be told, even if it WERE meant to track the student's every move, would that be a whole lot different than the system my kids' school now has in place? Teachers take attendance in each class. Once the bell rings, kids are not permitted in the hall without a written hall pass that gives the date, time, says where they're going and where they came from (including if they're going to the restroom.) At lunch, they're not allowed off campus, although they are allowed outside if the weather permits. (At my niece's school-- which is my old high school-- they're not even allowed outside the building during school hours without a pass.) If I drop in on my kids' school, they can tell me exactly where my child is at any point during the day. Or at least they better be able to. And the vo-tech school my oldest attends is even MORE strict about whose going where. You have to pass three checkpoints with guards and sign them out in the presence of a school official before you can take them off school grounds!

My point is, when I send my child to school, I EXPECT the school to be able to tell me where my child is at every moment. If they can't do that, then they're being derelict in their duty, especially in an elementary school (which the one using this technology is.)

I once ran the absentee phone in program from my sons' elementary school. (They're both in high school now.) If a child was going to be absent, the parent would call in to an answering machine and leave a message stating who they were, who their child was and that the child would be out of school for the day. They didn't have to leave a reason why, but if they did, we noted it. That way, we knew that the parent knew that the child wasn't in school. If the child was absent and the parent didn't call in, I called the parent and asked "Are you aware your child is not in school?" It was a measure of protection instituted after one girl's non-custodial father snatched her from the bus stop and no one knew she was even missing until she didn't get off the bus that afternoon. The school has a responsibility to protect their students and to know where those students are at all times during the day.

I'm not saying there's not going to be abuses of the system or that the use of the system is a beneficial thing. I can see both sides: it frees up the teacher so that no time is wasted taking attendance. It doesn't rely on memory, which can be very faulty. But I can also see where all someone has to do to skip school is to give their tag to someone else in their class and have them walk through the door with it in their back pocket. If the teacher doesn't verify at least by headcount what the computer tells him/her, the records would indicate the child was in class, but the child wouldn't be there. Another potential snafu would be if a child loses their tag (or has it taken from them or stolen) and someone wears it while committing vandalism, an innocent child might be held responsible for something s/he didn't do.

THESE, I believe, are valid concerns for the use of the cards. But as to the privacy issue, that's a strawman and red herring because every school should be able to locate EVERY student at any moment during the day because it's their responsibility to do so. The parent has entrusted the school with their child's well-being. Would these parents who are claiming "right to privacy" violations put up with a day care provider that couldn't tell htem where their child was at every moment? I seriously doubt it.

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