My high school rolled out an ID system in 1998 using SSNs printed on every ID (staff and students). About a week later, they realized this was a bad idea and reissued 1000+ IDs without the SSN.

I still don’t know what the point of the ID cards was. They were just laminated paper, no RFID, magstripe, or barcode to open doors or to buy things from the cafeteria or school store. You didn’t need it to check out books from the library and no one ever asked to see it. And we got a new one every year.

I guess some vendor convinced the school that they needed ID cards and so they got them.