Our school is going to use a FREE identification program offered by Kidz I.D. The info that they put on the cards contain picture, age, weight, medical info, address, etc. The I.D. cards stay at school to be used for field trips, etc. Parents may then purchase any additional cards for only $4 ea. Their website is www.kidzid.com
Try the sheriff's department instead of the local police. Farmer's Insurance is the one that did ID cards at our bike fair but it did not include fingerprints or DNA.
I found a link that tells you how to make your own kit. The PTO can take class pictures of each child and have each parent send in the vital statistics it requests and then put them together and laminate them. www.childwatch.org/MakeYourOwnIDKit.htm
But really $1800 is not a huge amount to spend on this. If your PTO members are opposed, ask them how much their child is worth. Tell them to put a dollar amount on their own children. Perhaps then, they will see that it's a bargain, compared to the alternative.
Hey Thanks everyone for your advice. I have checked into a few programs and while the ident a kid and chip program are the most convenient, they are also the most expensive. At $6 per card, we are going to have a lot of parents that don't do it. If the PTO pays for it, it would only be around $2.50 a card but that would cost our PTO @ $1800. I don't think that is terribly expensive to do the whole school, but I am having a hard time making it fly with the other PTO members. Our police department doesn't do anything with this. I am trying to find a lions club and insurance agency but I am not having much luck. We are a title one school, are there any services associated with this? Does anyone have other ideas? :confused:
Our local Sheriff's dept does this for free and will come to your school or event to do it. You get digital fingerprints and the picture on a sheet with information typed in. Check with local law enforcement and see if they have a similar program.
I don't like the idea about using a company for this. No one should have to pay to keep their children safe.
call your local State Farm Insurance company(or whoever you have near you) They sent us all the supplies, camera and film. They had no one in our area that day so we called our police chief and he sent us the DARE officer and another officer to do all the work.