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NYC schools crack down on student OMNY card abuse, but privacy advocates raise concerns
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 14, 2025
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Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 14, 2025
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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.
Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.
New York City public school students entered the academic year with new “Brat” green OMNY cards that grant them four free subway rides a day — but a recent crackdown has revealed the system is flagging students for fraud if they aren’t riding near their schools.
Some cards have been deactivated outright because they’re used at offbeat locations. One parent whose child’s OMNY card stopped working received an email from a school administrator that said the system set up by the MTA and education department expects the cards’ first tap to be at a station “near the home address, the second stop to be near the school, and the final stop of the day to be near the home address.”
“There is room on the card for one additional stop per day, which would allow a student to attend an appointment or activity after school,” the email states.
The city subsidizes the cards for public school students and the fraud protections aim to prevent the city from paying for student travel outside of school.
The MTA flags OMNY cards for potential fraud and alerts the education department if it detects a card isn’t being used regularly near the school where it was assigned. But the state authority does not have access to student names or other personal information.
Central staff at the education department, which does know the students' identities, then communicates with the schools about the issue, according to MTA officials.
Some advocates fear any location data used to track fraud gives the education department a tool to monitor the movement of New York City’s 1.1 million public school students.
Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, has been in contact with the parents whose email exchange revealed the monitoring system. He claims the family’s child accidentally took the parent’s OMNY card, which led the parents to use the student’s OMNY pass to get to work. As a result, the school-issued card was flagged for fraud and deactivated.
“ It's a level of tracking that we never had before,” said Cahn. “ It was really shocking to learn from a parent that the city had deployed this capacity to track seemingly every student using the OMNY system, done this on a massive scale and never really told anyone.”
He said the privacy concern “creates a huge risk for so many vulnerable communities,” such as undocumented immigrants.
Education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said schools do not track students’ immigration statuses or countries of origin.
MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara said in a statement that it's rare the MTA flags improper use by students.
“In the relatively few situations where student passes are being used improperly, as we’ve said repeatedly those cards will be deactivated, and we defer to NYC Public Schools to resolve those matters with any students involved,” she said.
In a statement, Lyle reiterated that while MTA knows generally which cards are for students, identifying information about individual students "lives exclusively with New York City Public Schools, and the MTA has no access to this data.”
Have a question about subway cars (or literally anything else NYC-transit related)? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
But note that Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here.
Question from Neil in Brooklyn
As baseball season approaches, my mind turns to when the work on the 7 will be complete to allow the express to resume full service. Is there any update from the MTA on what the holdup is and when it expects to be able to resume full service?
Answer
Riders on the 7 train have endured construction disruptions since 2022, when the MTA began work on an escalator and Grand Central. The work moved on to elevator upgrades at Queensboro Plaza, and construction has moved down the line since, with work at 82nd Street-Jackson Heights, 111th Street, and 61st Street-Woodside. The agency is now working on another station renewal project at 103rd Street-Corona Plaza, which has disrupted express service. But don’t expect the construction to wrap up in time for baseball season — the larger project on the 7 line isn’t slated to finish until late next year.
The latest NYC area transit headlines
Listen here:
None
In the month since congestion pricing took effect:
- Manhattan politicians have renewed their push for residential parking permits. Read more.
- New Jersey drivers have started complaining that it’s harder to find a free parking spot uptown. Read more.
- Pedestrian traffic in Manhattan has risen while car traffic has lessened. Read more.
For the past two years, more people have died from traffic crashes than fatal shootings in New York City. Read more.
A 25-year-old mother gave birth to a baby girl on a W train stopped at the Herald Square station yesterday. Read more.
A community group in Ozone Park, Queens, is demanding stricter parking enforcement after a fatal fire this week where FDNY officials said cars blocking hydrants slowed firefighters’ response. Read more.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this week that New York City is set to get 267 new fast-charging stalls for electric vehicles by 2027. Read more.
Seeing more NYPD officers in the subway system? We explain what’s happening.
Tagged
new york city
education
transportation
On The Way
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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