Should Police Departments Offer Iris Scans for Children?

Mexico launches national ID cards for children

From Granby police offer iris scans under child identification program sponsored by Hampshire County Sheriff's department:

Over the next couple of months, parents will be able to have their children's irises scanned under a child identification program sponsored by the Hampshire County Sheriff's Department.

Police Chief Alan P. Wishart Jr. said consent forms to participate in the program are being distributed through the schools and can also be obtained at the Police Department.

"Like fingerprinting, it is another way to identify children in case of abduction," Wishart said.

Iris scanning was scheduled to be done at a recent Passport to Safety program at the Granby Junior Senior High School, but there was a conflict in scheduling, Wishart said. The scans would become part of a national database.

Here are a couple of questions: Should scanning be done on children and these records become part of a national database?  What agency (private or public) is maintaining the database?  Should parents ask more questions on exactly where these records will be stored and who/what agency has access to them and for what purpose?  Are these scans available to be shared with various federal agencies for their purposes?  Will private companies have access to these scans? 

A teacher comments:

"My goal is to try to collaborate with community program providers," she said.  Gail M. Ouimet, kindergarten teacher and coordinator, said the safety event was made possible with a couple of grants.

From an earlier masslive.com article Passport to Safety event planned for families in Granby  on iris scanning planned to take place in the school:

(The event) is made possible with a grant from the state Department of Early Education and Care of the state Executive Office of Education to Granby through the Holyoke Chicopee Springfield Head Start. 

Parents were upset that iris scans were done on their children without their knowledge in Polk County Florida.  Is the issue that permission was not obtained?  Do most parents want their children's biometric information in a national data base and have no issue with the retrieval as long as permission is granted?  Do parents know (or are concerned) where that information is going and who/how it will be used?  

Maybe the iris scans from Granby will be incorporated into a database similar to the "Baby Talk" data set crafted by Illinois.  The Illinois State Board is implementing the compilation of data first on Head Start babies and data gathering will expand each year to include more children.  Who knows where all this data is going on our children and how it will be used?


Please note: The information in this post is copyrighted. The proper citation is:

Logue, G (June 2013). "Should Police Departments Offer Iris Scans for Children?".  Retrieved (date) from the Missouri Education Watchdog site: http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/

  

Illinois Tracking Students from 24 Hours Old to 3 Years Old. "Baby Talk" Data Set Revealed

We know that data sets have been compiled on students, but in Missouri, we are told by our state agency that it is "not its intent" to compile personal information data on students.

While it might not be DESE's stated intent to gather personal student data, it may inconsequential if mandates exist requiring state educational agencies or local school districts to track students and provide certain data.  Illinois will be gathering data on children from 24 hours old to 3 years old in its Student Information System (SIS).   It is not stated whether this is mandated by a federal requirement, but this information taken by the state on children less than 3 years old includes data beyond the usual information of name, address, courses taken and attendance.

The data mining set begins on page 52/92 from All Schools Meeting May 2011: Illinois State Board of  of School Year 2011 and Planning for School Year 2012:

Demographics and Early Childhood (Ages 3-5) File Format

Changes

Removing

 “Pre-K At Risk Classroom”

Replace with Placeholder 1

Student must be identified as one of the following when student is enrolled

Preschool for All (PFA)

Head Start

Pre-K Title I

Local or Other Funding

New SIS Data Collections for School Year 2012

Birth to 3 Data Collection

Students Ages 1 day old to less than three years of age identified with Grade Level

‘00’

If Student is Birth to 3, Full Time Equivalent (FTE) must be 1.0

When student is enrolled in Grade “00” a Birth to 3 record is created

All Mandatory Birth to 3 data must be entered before the student can be exited

Birth to 3

Data Elements

EI Number                                                                       Optional

Program Model                                                               Mandatory

Service location (modality) for prevention

initiative programs                                                          Mandatory

Screening for eligibility tool                                          Mandatory

Total number of home visits during the year             Mandatory

Total number of parent groups/sessions

attended during the year                                                Mandatory

Total number of hours of services for student

per week                                                                             Mandatory

Student born with a low birth weight                          Mandatory

Is student living in a foster home                                 Mandatory

Was parent married at time of student's birth           Optional

Biological mother's date of birth                                   Optional

Student's family is receiving child support                 Mandatory

Student's family is receiving TANF                              Mandatory

Student‘s family is receiving WIC                                 Mandatory

Student's family is receiving food stamps                   Mandatory

Student's family is receiving a Housing Subsidy       Mandatory

What is this program of tracking 1 day old babies to 3 years old called?  It's called "Baby Talk" (pg 65/92):

 Who has access to this data and why is this data gathered?  From The Illinois Longitudinal Data System Project:

The Illinois State Board of Education, along with our Education Partners, is now actively moving forward with the design and development of the state-wide Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS).  The system, when fully deployed, will provide data to help to track the outcomes of Illinois students as they progress from Pre-K through Postsecondary education, and as they enter the workforce.  Longitudinal data supports an in-depth, comprehensive view of students’ progress and will ultimately help guide policymakers on where to invest time and energy to most effectively improve student achievement in our State.

The ILDS is defined by Public Act 96-0107 and enabled through federal funding, and instructs the State Board of Education to link student test scores, length of enrollment and graduation records over time.  The system also will connect students to career planning and resources, with the potential to facilitate the application process for financial aid and records transfer for students.
ILDS will serve a large stakeholder group, including:

• Illinois State Board of Education
• Local Education Authorities
• Regional offices of education and intermediate service centers
• Parents and other members of the general public
• State Legislatures
• News media
• Research organizations
• Postsecondary Institutions
• State workforce and higher education agencies
• Education Partners

The ILDS Project has five major components:

1. Establishment of a Data Advisory Committee
2. Development of an Enterprise-wide Data Architecture
3. Improved Data Quality through Data Stewardship
4. Development of an Education Enterprise Data Warehouse
5. Linking of the ISBE Unique Student Identifier with Postsecondary and Employment Data

The career/work tracking of students in Illinois now begins when a baby is at least 24 hours old.  Why would Missouri or any other state with common core standards and longitudinal adata systems be any different?    Like Illinois, a stated goal of the Missouri P20 longitudinal data system is to track human capital into the workforce:

These data also can be linked to external data sets on employment, labor needs across sectors, economic development, community assets, and so forth.

  

Why is it necessary for the government to track a mother's marital status, federal/state assistance received, low birth weight of the baby, etc?  If a baby is born with health problems into a one-parent home that depends on governmental assistance, does it put the child on a certain track?  Why do you think tracking begins at 24 hours old instead of a newborn?

Finite resources must be used appropriately on the human capital most likely to reap the advantages of those resources and this particular child is not starting off as a good investment based on its data.  Note that the baby is not the only person tracked.  Parent(s) are also tracked as to their behavior.