Back in October 2010, I commented on a news report out of Houston on the use of RFID tags with students. Yesterday, Francisco Vara-Orta reported on the situation in San Antonio.
As I anticipated when I wrote, ” the student’s’ RFID tag will register them as “in school” and track their location throughout the day so that the district can get all of its attendance-related funds from the state.,” that appears to be precisely the motivation in San Antonio.
Here’s the kicker:
Texas Education Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said no state law or policy regulates the use of such devices and the decision is up to local districts.
It might behoove the state to come up with some guidelines or regulations about where such tracking cannot be used and for how long data can be retained…. or whether it can be shared.
And if RFID tagging is used for attendance monitoring, does that make it part of the student’s education record subject to FERPA??