Free Arrival and Departure Notifications for All Elementary School Students in Seoul

[Financial News] Starting in September, the school arrival and departure notification service will be fully free for all grades at every national, public, and private elementary school in Seoul. The school safety network, which had previously been operated on either a paid or free basis depending on the school, will now shift to a fully subsidized system supported by the education office. On the 26th, SMOE said it will cover the full service fee for the notification service at 607 elementary schools in Seoul, affecting about 320,000 students.
Until now, only 429 of Seoul's 606 elementary schools, or 70.8%, had operated the notification service on a school-by-school basis. Most of them used a user-pays model, leaving parents to cover monthly fees of 2,200 to 3,300 won directly. As a result, there were gaps in safety coverage depending on school conditions and household circumstances. With this measure, the cost burden on parents who had been paying fees will disappear, and all 320,000 students, including those at schools that had not adopted the service, will be covered.
The required budget amounts to 904.87 million won in special grants from the Ministry of Education for disaster and safety management, and it will be spent through February next year, when the 2026 school year ends. The per-student allocation is only about 2,800 won because the Ministry of Education is promoting the project nationwide and negotiated lower unit costs with existing service providers. The budget includes not only service fees but also the cost of purchasing devices. An SMOE official explained, "Previously, each school signed separate contracts with vendors, so in many cases the fee exceeded 3,000 won." The official added, "This time, as the government pushed ahead with a nationwide project, we negotiated with existing service providers and lowered the unit cost."
However, because the budget is allocated in the form of special grants, sustainability remains an issue. An SMOE official said, "Since the Ministry of Education has already begun surveying demand for next year's budget, support is likely to continue through next year," but added, "Because of the nature of special grants, after that we will have to apply for and receive the budget again every year."
The school arrival and departure notification service works by automatically recognizing entry and exit information through a device carried by the student and a relay installed at the school, then sending the information to parents by text message or app notification. The education office will distribute standard guidelines to support school-level independent contracts. Schools are free to choose their vendors, but the office expects many will keep their existing providers. Procedures for converting current users to free service and distributing devices will be explained through school notices to families.
In a survey conducted by SMOE in April and May through the public opinion platform, 4,653 of 4,802 respondents, or 96.9%, said they supported the full subsidy policy.
Geun-sik Chung, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said, "Supporting all parents so they can check their children's arrival and departure status, and creating a safe commuting environment, is an important responsibility of the education office." He added, "We will build a more comprehensive student safety network so that all elementary school students and parents in Seoul can feel at ease."

[email protected] Kim Man-ki Reporter