Florida School District Installs Fingerprint Scanners on Buses

A county in Florida has installed fingerprint scanners in school buses. Described as “one of the most monumental things that Washington County has ever done” by an education bureaucrat, the machines have been used since the beginning of the school year.

School officials decided moving the scanners to the buses was a more effective way to monitor students. They plan to have a scanner and laptop installed on every bus in the district.

“We got to talking about attendance in our district and how it was inconsistent,” School Superintendent Sandra Cook told WJHG, an NBC affiliate in Panama City, Florida.

The effort to digitally monitor the whereabouts of students in Florida follows a national trend. In 2010, the Los Angeles Unified School District told students they would have to submit to a compulsory biometric identification system in order to receive lunch. Other K-12 schools have used fingerprint and biometric systems during lunch and to improve reimbursement for federal programs such No Child Left Behind.