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High-tech tags may track kids in TUSD
Radio devices show when pupils get on, off buses
By Jeff Commings
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Millions of consumers pay extra to put tracking devices in their cars in case of theft.
But would parents want to shell out more money for something similar for their children? And would schools go for it?
The answer seems to be yes.
School districts around the nation are starting to hold themselves more accountable for the students they're paid to teach and protect. As part of the growing trend, officials in the Tucson Unified School District already are testing new technology that helps keep track of elementary students during the school day.
Using a program similar to the Global Positioning System already in use in consumer and commercial vehicles, Gateway Communications Inc. has been testing the technology on three TUSD buses since January.
If the program is approved for a districtwide rollout in the fall, the company would give TUSD's 12,000 bus-riders from fifth grade down a plastic watchband, a small black box hooked to a belt loop or a key fob. The devices will let administrators, teachers and parents know when students get on a bus, when they get off, where they are at noon and when they're dropped off.
Parents would pay about $20 to participate in the program and buy the equipment. Part of the fee would go toward school fund-raising efforts.
So far, TUSD officials are pleased with the technology, called BusPass, and are looking forward to seeing how the program would work on a larger scale. Gateway president and co-owner Jon Rowley said he expects to present a proposal to the district in a few weeks.
"This will allow the school to know as soon the kid boards the bus that they (students) are in their possession," he said.
In the future, those involved say the technology could evolve to the classroom and upper grades. Teachers could even track their students' exact locations on campus, represented as dots on a computerized map.
How it works
If the expanded BusPass idea is approved by the TUSD governing board, Rowley said any children whose parents sign them up would wear one of three radio-frequency identification, or RFID, devices that will hold a unique serial number embedded in a microchip.
Radio waves will send the number to a reader and notify schools that the child connected to the number has boarded the bus and will be arriving at school. Parents would receive a text message notifying them throughout the day of the bus schedule so they can be aware of their children's whereabouts.
The only information sent through the system — from the bus to computer server to the Internet — are the serial numbers, Rowley said. Only the school would have the corresponding personal information related to each serial number.
The overall cost of the program depends on the number of children who sign up, but outfitting the district's 300 buses with radio trackers could cost the company about $100,000, Rowley said.
He said the benefits of the program would be numerous.
Districts could track the location of their buses and note their speeds and number of kids on the bus in real time. Teachers could take attendance earlier because they would be notified that a student is headed to school.
Parents could arrange their schedules to meet buses and not have kids walking alone. The program also could help administrators know exactly which kids are on a bus that's been involved in an accident or is running late.
"In the click of a mouse, they can know exactly who was on the bus, not who they think is on the bus," Rowley said.
Bill Ball, TUSD's transportation director, said the test phase is going smoothly and he's impressed by the way he can track buses in all parts of the city.
He wouldn't give odds on the program's approval, saying that more testing and analysis is necessary this summer. Plus, he wants to consider other companies that have expressed interest in more traditional technology that would track only the buses, not the students on them.
Blenman Elementary School parent Ken New says he keeps a close eye on his 6-year-old twins, Cassandra and Marcus, but he thinks the tracking device could be a good use of technology.
"The only thing I'd be concerned about is who could get access to that kind of information," he said.
Alessandra Soler Meetze, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said the technology seems to have a lot of benefits — but it shouldn't replace the human eye.
An alternative would be adult supervisors on the bus, she said.
The districtwide program would start with kindergarten through fifth-grade students, Rowley said, because they are less likely to complain about wearing a tracking device.
As the children get older, the program could work its way into middle and high schools.
"By the time a kindergartner gets to sixth grade, they'll get used to it," Rowley said.
But New thinks older kids don't need the same kind of monitoring.
"When kids get a little bit older, parents need to back off and give them a little bit of privacy," he said. "As far as the younger kids go, that's not necessarily a bad idea. But definitely not in high school. And even middle school is a little iffy."
RFID rejected in Calif.
RFID technology is conspicuously present in many parts of the consumer world, from retail stores to libraries. The military also uses it to find wounded soldiers. Enterprise Charter School in Buffalo, N.Y., has used it since 2003, and is believed the first school to do so.
But the idea isn't always embraced.
In the small town of Sutter, Calif., parents successfully lobbied the district to discontinue their monthlong ID tag program in February 2005 after discovering children were forced to wear them and that personal information was sent through the system. This year, the California state Senate proposed a law prohibiting the use of RFID technology in state and local governments.
School privacy issues also have been raised, an issue that came up earlier this year in Tucson, when local businessman Ken Ross proposed putting a security camera in every public school in Pima County. Three districts are testing the program now, though detractors said students don't need to be watched all the time.
But Rowley said he's encountered very little local opposition.
If phase one works, he'd like to expand the technology to school campuses, where teachers would be able to know in real time if students get sidetracked on the way to the computer lab or take the long way to the nurse's office.
Rowley also would like to promote the idea to other districts. Some seem interested.
"Different conversations have come up on the practicality of a better system on the buses to track what students are on what bus," said Marana Unified School District spokeswoman Tamara Crawley. Working with Rowley "would be based on what particular area we'd be looking to implement."
TUSD board member Alex Rodriguez heard of the technology and persuaded the board to pilot the program this semester.
"My broad interest is to look at the issue of safety," he said. "We live in a very complex world. Anytime we can enhance the safety of our children, especially the young ones, we should look into that system."
But he said student privacy needs to be protected, too.
"A parent whose son or daughter is left in the care of the school district has an expectation for their child's safety," he said. "The last thing we want to do is be in the business of their own personal lives."
● Star reporter Daniel Scarpinato contributed to this story.
● Contact reporter Jeff Commings at 573-4191 or at jcommings@azstarnet.com.
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