Scans of fingerprints ease school lunch time

School officials say the
biometrics technology provides more accurate record-keeping.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Parents in the central Ohio town of Circleville may not have to worry about lost or misspent lunch money anymore.

This week Circleville schools are joining Akron, Huron, Rocky River and at least five other school districts in Ohio implementing new fingerprint technology, which allows pupils to pay for lunch with a touch. The cost of the meals is then deducted from prepaid accounts.

Schools who use the fingerprint software system, called biometrics technology, say swiping fingers increases speed in lunch lines and helps schools keep a more accurate count of how many pupils are served meals. Distributors of the software say the systems typically cost between $1,000 and $5,000 per cafeteria line register.

Critics have raised questions about the security and privacy of the technology.

Fingerprints are serious and should not be used for something as trivial as purchasing school lunches, said Carrie Davis, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. If prints are stored with a pupil’s file — which might contain grades, contact information and medical records — any security breach could be dangerous for the children, Davis said.

“Fingerprinting students is another troubling sign of our surveillance society,” she said.

About the scans

The images scanned by the biometrics technology aren’t technically fingerprints, said Mitch Johns, president of the Wilmington, N.C.-based Food Service Solutions, one of the firms that makes the technology. Fingerprints used by law enforcement officials identify 40 separate points of a print, but the commercial fingerprinting systems typically use just the tip of a finger and identify only 7 to 15 points of a print.

“There’s no actual police-quality fingerprint stored,” he said.

Schools have turned to the technology as part of a growing trend nationwide to get cash out of schools entirely, he said. Other systems allow pupils to pay for lunch using PIN numbers, their last names or with special prepaid credit cards.

Schools also are eager to maximize their pupils who receive free or reduced-price lunches, which bring federal and state aid into schools, he said. High school students who are eligible to receive federally subsidized lunches often do not enroll because of the stigma of carrying around a free lunch ticket. Paying through fingerprints is entirely private, he said.

Akron happy with system

The system is working extremely well in Akron, the first district in Ohio to embrace the technology, said Debra Foulk, coordinator of business support services for Akron schools.

The district first implemented the technology in 2003, and currently about 14,000 pupils in 17 schools use the system, she said.

Foulk said she chose a biometrics system because it was the safest, most secure technology she could find. Fingerprints cannot be lost, stolen, or exchanged between pupils. With biometrics, schools know for sure which children were served lunch.