Identity Theft & Schools: Is Your Child at Risk?

Credit Fraud

With Labor Day weekend now on the horizon, there’s only one thing on the minds of parents: sending their kids back to school. But in the chaos of new backpacks, freshly sharpened pencils and Hannah Montana binders, few parents take the time to stop and think about how the school registration process might be exposing their children to identity theft.

Although it might seem strange that children can be victims of identity theft, thousands become victims each year and many identity thieves consider children to be prime targets. Why? Because children have clean records which makes it easy to obtain credit in their names, and they obviously don’t check their credit reports—so identity thieves can get away with committing fraud in children’s names for longer periods of time. So, your children could literally be defrauded throughout their entire childhoods thus preventing them from being able to obtain credit when they turn eighteen or leave for college.

Many cases of child identity theft result from family members stealing a child’s identity, but some of the other main causes are the mishandling of sensitive information by doctor’s offices and schools. Because September is one of the few times a year that your child’s sensitive information is taken out of hiding, it might be a good idea to evaluate how your child’s school handles that information and to put an identity theft protection plan in place.

Here are five things you should consider when filling out your child’s new school paperwork this fall.

1. Determine what information the school really needs rather than giving them everything they are asking for. If you have an elementary aged child the school will more than likely need a copy of your student’s birth certificate (to verify age) and vaccination records. But does the school really need your child’s social security number? Probably not. Although schools like to have that information, it is not always handled correctly. Social security numbers provide a direct link to identity theft, so they should be monitored closely. In certain instances students have been given ID cards with their social security numbers on them or grades have been posted (for middle school students and older) by social security number. Giving your child’s social security number to his or her school opens up the likely possibility that the information will eventually be accessed by someone without the right level of clearance or that it will otherwise get mishandled or lost along the way. Since your child is only given one social security number for life, it’s a good idea to keep it under wraps unless absolutely necessary. If a school presses you for it, ask to speak with the principal or someone else in authority and have him or her explain why having that number is necessary. If the reason isn’t convincing, don’t hand it over. There is nothing wrong with making your interest in identity theft protection known. 

2. Don’t be shy about asking how information is stored and disposed of. Dumpster diving identity thieves have been known to target businesses and institutions where paperwork with sensitive information on it has been known to be disposed of improperly. If hard copies of your student’s information are going to be kept on file, ask about how they will be stored and who will have access to them. If everything is eventually entered into a computer, ask about what happens to the hard copies when the school no longer needs them. Digital files can pose just as much (if not more) risk for identity theft if they aren’t properly stored and handled. If the person you are speaking with doesn’t have the answers to your questions, ask to speak with someone who does. It would be better to be labeled a paranoid parent than to have your child victimized due to someone else’s negligence. You might even be able to help educate the school on protecting other children’s identities.

3. Ask if your child’s teacher has access to student social security numbers and ask the teacher how that information is stored and transported. All teachers keep grade books, and many of them keep student information inside their grade books. If your child’s social security number is kept inside a teacher’s grade book it can easily become compromised if that grade book becomes lost, stolen or misplaced—or even if it is left unattended for a short period of time. Consider talking with someone in the front office about why teachers are given student social security numbers in the first place. If fewer people have access to private and sensitive information, your student has a lower risk of becoming victimized and the school has a lower liability.

4. Bring in your own photocopies of your child’s documents rather than allowing the school to photocopy them. Many photocopy machines are equipped with hard drives that save copies of everything copied in an unencrypted format. If you have access to a non-public copier or you know your office copier has been equipped with an overwriting mechanism that erases old files, it is a lot safer to photo copy your child’s sensitive information on your own. If a school merely needs to see the child’s birth certificate then you (not your child) can take it into the office so they can see it. If copies don’t need to be kept on file, don’t allow them to copy any important documents. The longer the paper trail, the higher the odds are of identity theft.  

5. Consider making a family investment in ID Secure. Because some things about protecting your child’s identity are just beyond your control, purchasing a product like ID Secure might greatly increase your peace of mind as well as the level of protection guarding your student’s identity. For just $12.99 a month a professional identity monitoring company will use advanced web crawling technology to search the internet and public records to make sure that your student’s social security number, credit and ATM cards and other personal information isn’t being fraudulently used in any way. ID Secure makes sure your child’s identity is being monitored 24 hours a day seven days a week helping to keep it safe. If fraudulent activity is suspected, you will be informed immediately. You can learn more by clicking here.
 
Just as your child’s physical safety is a primary concern for you, the safety of your child’s identity should be of the utmost importance. Your child only gets one identity, and the damage that identity theft can do in fifteen minutes can take an entire lifetime to resolve. Become an advocate of child identity safety. Although it may be your child’s identity, it’s still your job to protect it.