Meg Sullivan / The Regional News / Palos Heights, IL - 5/1/2008

High School District 230 will begin screening visitors to its three schools at the next school year using a computerized ID scanning system.

The district's board of education voted unanimously last Thursday to approve using digital software to scan the identification card or driver's license of every visitor trying to gain access to Sandburg, Stagg and Andrew high schools.

The software will cost the district $4,476 for the 2008-09 school year and $1,791 each succeeding year. Houston-based Raptor Technologies will provide the software, which screens a driver's license or state ID and checks it against names listed on registered sexoffender databases in 49 states. The scans also identify individuals who have been the subject of orders of protection or restraining orders, or have been banned from schools.

Currently, the three schools only require a photo ID and signature in a sign-in book to enter through one designated visitor door.

School board member Kathy Quilty said all security officers working at the front door will be trained on how to properly use the new software.

If no issues arise during the ID scan, the system will print a visitor's badge for the person, and he or she will be allowed to enter the building. If the person does not clear the scan, he or she will not be allowed in.

"If they don't have an established appointment or ID, they are not allowed in," Superintendent James Gay said.

Thirty-two school districts in Illinois use the Raptor Technologies software. The board also voted last Thursday to approve a policy that governs surveillance cameras in all three buildings as soon as possible.

In the last few months, the board has voted to approve the installation of cameras both inside and outside the schools including all entrances, parking lots and athletic fields in addition to risk areas like loading docks, chemistry labs and computer labs.

The cameras will be installed before the end of the school year and could become operational at any time, now that they have been voted on.