In their pursuit to enhance student safety, Haverhill Public Schools have introduced a new system that allows them to keep an eye on which students are boarding and leaving the school buses.
The initiative called "ZPass" has been implemented for the 2023/2024 school year to monitor the whereabouts of students during their commute, according to CBS News and the Haverhill Public Schools website.
Students are provided with unique identification cards equipped with radio frequency technology, which they will scan while entering and exiting the bus. This allows the Haverhill Public Schools Transportation Department to identify which students are using the service and when they board or leave the bus. Notably, students are not tracked when they are not aboard the bus.
Reacting to potential concerns about data privacy and misuse, Haverhill school officials have been quick to underscore that the system is secure and accessible only to authorized district staff.
Students who happen to forget their ZPass cards will still be allowed on the bus, thus not compromising their safety in the absence of the pass, as CBS News reported.
