It was supposed to be a seamless transition – students at Clinton County School District in Clinton County, Missouri, would switch from a lunch system that used encoded cards to one that uses biometric information from student fingerprints.

The stumbling block? It’s not funding the system or finding technicians who can install it – biometrics systems like the ones in Clinton County schools are common place now. It’s old fashioned paper permission slips – ones signed by parents that must be received before students may use fingerprints – that have brought the development to a halt.
Several parents of Clinton County Schools students have concerns about the privacy of the new system – what kind of data is stored with the fingerprints and how long it’s retained. They refuse to allow their children to use the new system until these (and other) questions are answered.
Until then, students at Clinton County schools will continue to use a card-based system, where parents can add money to student cards for them to purchase cafeteria food and snacks.