Fort Worth ISD students required to wear ID badges starting 2025-26 school year
All students in the Fort Worth Independent School District will be required to wear photo ID badges during the school day and after-school activities starting in the 2025-26 school year.
The badges, a new security measure, will also be used by students to check out library books and equipment such as laptops, in addition to buying à la carte food during lunch.
Students who don’t have their IDs visible could face consequences ranging from verbal warnings to school suspensions.
Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Karen Molinar said on Tuesday during a school board meeting that parents have raised concerns about the lanyards being a choking hazard for elementary students and noted that the ones purchased by the district are breakaway lanyards. Students will not wear them during recess time or PE class.
The badges will also be incorporated into the district’s bus system.
“They are only used for check in (and check out) on our school buses. They are not used for tracking. So just so our parents know that our badges do not have any type of tracking device for our students,” Molinar said.
Temporary badges will be issued to students who forget their badge at home, but it will cost $5 for a new permanent badge to be issued if a student loses theirs.
Other districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have already required students to wear ID badges or are beginning to implement identical policies.
In the upcoming school year, Dallas ISD is rolling out a similar, districtwide system, while Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD is requiring secondary students to wear ID badges. Frisco ISD started its student ID badge program in the 2022-23 school year. Richardson ISD introduced ID badges for elementary students in the 2024-25 school year but already had required secondary students to wear such badges “for approximately two decades.”
The first day of school for Fort Worth ISD is Aug. 12.
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 10:29 PM.
