The Core Knowledge Blog

Enhanced school safety?  Or just plain creepy? That’s the question school officials and parents in Rhode Island are grappling as they weigh the efficacy of a pilot program that equipped elementary school students’ backpacks with radio frequency locator tags in the name of improved safety for children in transit to and from school on buses.

House and Senate lawmakers, worried about privacy violations, passed legislation prohibiting the use of such tags to track students.  But Rhode Island’s governor has vetoed the bill noting that “in certain circumstances, it may be helpful for schools to have the ability to quickly identify where each of their students is located.”

A Middletown school official said the tracking devices were not meant to infringe upon students’ rights. The tags were placed on backpacks of children who rode buses and were used to track them in real time as they boarded and left the vehicles.  The Providence Journal says the idea was “to help notify parents when a bus is running late, or has encountered trouble, as was the case during the December snowstorm that saw more than 50 Providence buses stranded for hours, said school facilities director Edward Collins, a program supporter. In more serious circumstances, the chips could alert school officials if a child was lost or abducted.”