Schools drop more than $350K on ‘creepy’ new digital hall pass scheme — that tracks kids’ toilet trips
New York City public school students are pushing back against a new digital hall pass system that allows teachers to track exactly how long students spend out of class. The program, SmartPass, has been implemented in 167 schools and logs time away from classrooms, totals missed instructional minutes, and can flag unauthorized hallway activity.
The company behind SmartPass promotes it as a tool to reduce classroom interruptions, letting students request passes through iPads instead of interrupting lessons. Critics, however, describe the system as invasive and overly controlling.
“How would that even work?” asked 17-year-old Nairobi H., a senior at Union Square Academy for Health Sciences. She said the tracking feature could make students feel pressured and negatively affect their behavior. “I would be uncomfortable because then I would have to rush doing what I’m doing. And that wouldn’t feel nice,” she explained. Nairobi already uses traditional hall passes and sees little functional difference between those and the new digital system.
Public records show the Department of Education spent $368,000 on SmartPass contracts in 2025 and $120,000 in 2024. With the current rollout, that averages about $2,200 per school. The spending comes amid warnings from the city’s Independent Budget Office that $535 million needs to be cut to close budget gaps.
“It’s just creepy,” said Johanna Miller, director of education policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union. She warned that SmartPass could create long-term digital records of student behavior that are vulnerable to exploitation or hacking.
The Department of Education insists the system complies with privacy regulations. “NYC Public Schools takes student privacy seriously, and we follow all city, state, and federal privacy regulations. All approved tools meet strict privacy and security standards,” spokesperson Onika Richards said. She added that no school is required to adopt SmartPass and that each school can decide whether to implement it.
Despite reassurances, students remain uneasy. “Like, if you were walking down the street and you knew that somebody was watching you, like, following wherever you go?” Nairobi said. “I feel like most people just would feel uncomfortable about the idea of that.”
Some students see SmartPass as an extreme form of micromanagement. “It’s taken monitoring students to a whole other level,” said 18-year-old Shokhjakhon Samiev, a senior in Brooklyn. “We’re here to educate ourselves, not learn how to use the bathroom.”
At his school, students sign out on an iPad at the classroom door, which times their absence. SmartPass supporters point to safety benefits, such as tracking student locations during emergencies. James Hunt, assistant principal at a Missouri school, wrote on the company’s website that the system helps ensure administrators know which students are in the hallways.
In practice, though, the system can create complications. Students can sign out using someone else’s name, preventing that student from leaving the classroom. Reviews in the Apple App Store reflect frustration, with students calling the system “flawed” and describing incidents where bathroom access was blocked or timed. One student reported being given only 30 seconds in a bathroom by a teacher.
Even with the technology, some students and staff still rely on traditional hall passes. “Schools are spending thousands of dollars for this system, to buy iPads instead of hiring more teachers or building better facilities at our schools,” Samiev said.
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