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Plano ISD outlines student ID/RFID pilot and updates electric‑bus rollout
Summary
District staff described a pilot to issue encrypted student ID cards with RFID readers to selected elementary campuses to improve ridership counts and safety; staff emphasized cards will not provide real‑time GPS tracking and said data access will be limited to transportation staff. Trustees asked about privacy, replacement fees and costs; staff cited bond funds and estimated upfront and recurring costs.
Plano ISD presented a transportation update April 7 that combined hazardous-roadway guidelines, a pilot for student ID/RFID badges and progress on the electric‑bus program.
Steve Ewing, chief of business operations, said the Transportation Safety Committee is not recommending changes to hazardous zones for 2026–27 but reiterated the district uses objective guidelines tied to lane counts and posted speeds. "Transportation will be provided to students that must cross 4‑ or 6‑lane roadways with a speed limit over 45 miles an hour," he said.
Mark Skinner described a planned student‑ID pilot at selected elementary campuses that uses encrypted RFID cards to record badge‑on/badge‑off events on buses. He emphasized the system "does not provide real time GPS tracking of those IDs" and said the cards are designed to take the place of manual ridership counts, reduce errors and produce reports that help routing decisions. Pilot campuses named included Brinker, Hickey, Hunt, Jackson, Stinson and Wells. Skinner said the badges will include color coding for younger students (red) and older grades (gold) and that students will not be denied rides if they fail to badge during the pilot.
Trustees asked how the district will ensure parental confidence and limit data access. Greg Grimes, executive director of enterprise systems, said badge data will be encrypted and readers will be keyed to Plano’s encryption; "If you take one of our badges and try to use it on their readers, the readers will not read our students' cards," he said. Grimes added that new tap data will be limited to transportation staff and that parent reporting options will be provided to campuses. Board members also asked about replacement fees and procurement costs; staff said the project was included in bond planning, that an initial software and implementation figure was roughly $800,000 and recurring software costs were estimated in the low hundreds of thousands per year, with additional one‑time equipment costs.
The presentation also summarized the district’s electric‑bus work: drivers, mechanics and dispatch staff received training on high‑voltage systems; the buses use regenerative braking and one charge can handle most routes. Staff said the district currently has 16 electric buses in operation and chargers in place.
District staff said the pilot will run several weeks with training and community communications ahead of any broader roll‑out in the 2026–27 school year.
