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I think the way the article worded it is confusing. Every staff member wears a photo ID badge, which is pretty common at most schools. At this school, their photo ID badges have a little button on the back. When that button is pressed, it activates the system.
I’m sure the buttons have little batteries inside them, probably similar to the type of battery in a smoke alarm. These types of batteries can last for years. However, many school districts issue new photo ID badges to staff each school year, so perhaps batteries are being replaced at that time if needed.
This sounds like a security nightmare though. A central repository of all code and keys is a gold mine for exploitation. Don’t get me wrong, I would really want this to work, but if it was compromised it could he catastrophic.
I do think there should be regulations in place that are clearly and easily enforceable by the FTC though. I’d love to see companies be hit with fines and/or compulsory refunds if they stop supporting devices and don’t provide some path forward for customers to keep using the device. That doesn’t solve for startups that go out of business, but it would at least cover the tech giants who are doing this garbage.