As technology continues to advance and schools are embracing it for their students, new legislation is making its way through the state Assembly that guarantees parents are made aware of any tracking or monitoring software included in that technology.

Assembly bill A-2932, and its companion Senate bill, S-2057, dubbed the "anti-big brother act," come in response to a Pennsylvania case where at least one student was monitored at home through a webcam that had been remotely activated by school officials.

“Everyone hopes that what occurred in the Pennsylvania school district was a one-time occurrence that you will never see happen anywhere else,” said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “This legislation says if you do have any kind of tracking software, you just have to tell the parents and the kids.”

The bill, which was introduced in May and amended last month, requires any school district that furnishes a student with a laptop computer, a cellphone of other electronic device, to provide notice if that device can record or collect information, or if it includes a camera or global positioning system that can be remotely accessed.

The West Deptford School District is in its fifth year of a one-on-one laptop program for its students from grades five through 12.

Thus far, the district has not included any tracking devices or remote-access systems, so they are already in compliance if this new legislation passes.

“We’ve been pretty lucky with how the students have respected the laptops,” said Chris Strano, West Deptford’s board of education president. “And every device is kind of limited on what they can do. We really wanted them to be education composing tools for the students.”

“We feel our process is sufficient. We would never consider any type of tracking device or any type of camera,” added Superintendent Kevin Kitchenmen.

New Jersey’s Senate passed a version of this bill, but will have to approve amendments made by the Assembly before it can be signed into law.

Changes, which were proposed by the school boards association, included adding charter schools to the institutions that will be affected as well as pushing the start date of new regulations to July 1 after the bill passes rather than just 60 days after it becomes law.

“Anecdotally, I think we’re seeing more and more the use of laptops or iPads and other technology,” Yaple said. “There simply needs to be disclosure.”

Contact Rebecca Forand at 856-845-3300 or rforand@southjerseymedia.com.