Freeport School District

School District Challenge

Serving 11 schools with 2,133 students eligible for transportation, Freeport School District (FSD) sought to decrease operating costs and maximize cost reimbursement opportunities to be good community stewards and fiscally responsible. As part of that objective, the district noted the availability of Medicaid reimbursement for transporting eligible special needs students to offset the cost of transportation services.

FSD had previously completed its Medicaid accounting on paper by monitoring and tallying eligible student ridership via checkboxes on the forms. This process was time-consuming and made it hard to accurately capture the data needed let alone verify it wasn’t being manipulated or “pencil whipped.” The paper-based method also led to error-prone claims and payback issues. FSD determined the process was too much work paired with the risk of audit for the returns they were receiving and discontinued the program.

Hesitant to invest in a process that had not worked, FSD took a hard look at what they already had in place, including the Z Pass™ system from Zonar. FSD acquired the Z Pass system with funds they received from a Zonar Don Carnahan / NAPT grant in 2009.

Z Pass is an RFID card-based student tracking system that allows schools to know the time, date and location of a student’s entry and exit from a bus in real time. Each card has a unique, secure student identifier, which enables FSD officials to have real-time child checks delivering peace of mind regarding where students are. Noting the unique student identifier capabilities of Z Pass, FSD decided to its Z Pass data work even smarter for it with Zonar’s integrated reporting.

With Z Pass, FSD eliminated the complexities and audit risk associated with manual reporting and let the system do the heavy lifting. Medicaid reporting for FSD is easy now with Z Pass, and FSD has produced a reimbursement revenue stream that more than pays for their Zonar solution.