This year the public schools in my area have started requiring all visitors drivers license be scanned with a "SafeVisitor" system before being allowed access to any school. This system runs some type of background check and probably logs your access to the building. As a bit of a privacy and civil liberty nut, this strikes me as over the top and perhaps illegal. Do schools have the right to run a background check without my permission to gain access to my child at school? I am fine with showing my ID to a human to verify my identity. Just wondering the legality of this. I know this is not a legal forum, so if there's a better place to ask let me know.
note: this is not for volunteers (they have a different check).
http://www.safevisitorsolutions.com/safevisitor/
http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2014/04/aclu_takes_so... says that ID isn't required to enroll a student into the school district. More specifically:
> In the letter to various school districts, Shalom cites the 1982 United States Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe, which decided that undocumented children living in this country cannot be precluded from public elementary and secondary schools because of immigration status.
> ... “We were surprised by the number and broad range of school districts with restrictive, discriminatory enrollment policies,” said Jeanne LoCicero, deputy legal director of the state ACLU. “These policies exist in almost every county, from the poorest cities to the wealthiest suburbs, and everywhere in between. Clearly, the scale of this problem demands serious action, and serious self-examination among New Jersey school districts.”
You can ask what their policy is for undocumented people or those without id.
If they ask "aren't you a US citizen?" you can say "you are not legally required to know that."
However, while I suspect that may let you pick up your child, meet the teacher, and attend PTA meetings, I don't know if you might not be allowed to chaperone or volunteer.
From one of Skenazy's posts (who schoen mentioned), that may require background checks, as in http://www.freerangekids.com/no-mam-you-may-not-chaperone-yo... .