The Anaheim Union High School District of California has come up with a new scheme for battling truancy: track students with GPS units.
Students with four or more unexcused absences are issued a GPS unit, which they must carry with them during the day. Their locations are checked five times a day – when they leave home for school, when they arrive, lunchtime, when they leave school, and eight PM. In addition to location tracking, students are assigned to a mentor for one-on-one planning sessions to avoid future truancy.
This is an interesting solution to a common problem – although I have to wonder how beneficial it really is to the other students to divert funds from education to technology, in the interests of filling the classroom with students who would rather not be there.