Colorado school district scraps biometric student ID scheme

Linda Stoll, head of food programs at the Boulder Valley, Coloradio, school district, was concerned that lines at schools’ cafetrias during lunch hour have become so long and slow, that kids had barely enough time to sit and eat before the lunch period was over. The main reason for the long delays at the food counter? Many students, especially kindergarteners, cannot remember their six-digit ID number, which they are required to type into keypads at the end of lunch lines. Stoll found out that there was technology which would allow a scanner to identify a kid qualified for lunch with the swipe of a finger, moving him or her quickly along. It would also help kids who forgot their lunch money, and may even remove the discomfort poorer children faced when they had to present the special tickets for free or reduced-price lunch. Time magazine’s Steven Gray writes that that she was not ready for the storm of protest from parents. Dozens of parents raised concerns about privacy, and many mentioned identity theft. Others expressed fear that immigrant children might be unfairly tracked by government. Eventually, Stoll’s biometric plan was scrapped.

Elementary and high school students in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and West Virginia use finger scans to pay for lunch — and to check into class. In other states, however, parental resistance has stopped the technology in its tracks. Michigan and Iowa have passed laws barring schools from taking electronic fingerprints of children. Last month, Illinois enacted a law requiring schools to get parental consent before capturing an image of a child’s finger.