WJHG.com’s Bryan Anderson, a reporter for the television station in Panama City in Northwest Florida is reporting that the local Washington County School District intends to implement an electronic fingerprinting system to keep track of school attendance of students.
According to school superintendent, Sandra Cook, “…the old method just wasn’t doing it.” By “it” she means the system currently in place for tracking school attendance by the student body.
The new system works by first having every student insert their finger into a device to enter their information into the database. After that, students are scanned when they get on the bus in the morning and then again when they get off after school. This ensures that the school gets an accurate record of which students attend school, and which do not and also provides a report for individual school attendance by all of the children enrolled.
The system has actually been in place for a couple of months but was set inside the school building. Recently however, it became clear that it would make more sense to do it as the children get on the bus. That too proved problematic at first as it’s against the law to have anything in the aisle of a school bus. Officials now believe they have figured out a way to have them placed near the driver, and the district will begin testing this system next week. If all goes according to plan, the system will go into full operation.
The system costs approximately $30 per student, but school officials are confident its presence will improve attendance which affects its bottom line as the school district, like most in the country, gets its funding based on attendance numbers. Thus, it appears the new system is based on financial considerations, rather than concern for kids playing hooky.
From a school standpoint, it appears the system makes sense; what might not is the impact of the system on the students. Many in the district have apparently made it be known that they will not allow their children to be subjected to the new system and thus will have to drive their kids back and forth which will require manual attendance records to be taken at the front office. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any reports of how the system might affect the kids emotionally, though if there are behavioral changes, they will almost certainly be noted.
Others who object to the system point out the fact that it could lead to cold or flu epidemics as every child is made to touch the same object every day, possibly leaving behind bacteria or viruses for those that come next.