GPS tracking improves attendance of chronically truant students

To bring about better attendance, judge has ordered several chronically truant students at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas to wear a GPS unit that tracks their whereabouts. Last school year, 46 chronic truants were ordered into the program, and their attendance improved from 84 percent to 97 percent during the six weeks they wore the GPS device. The school is completing its second year in the Attendance Improvement Management Program, which is funded by a mix of county, nonprofit and private funds.
Click here to read The Dallas Morning News article.

EARLIER: Instead of juvenile detention, some students at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas have been placed in a pilot program that electronically monitors chronically truant students. Since Jaime Pacheco, a 15-year-old freshman, started carrying the Global Positioning System unit April 1, he has had perfect attendance. The Dallas school system, which, like other large districts, has found it difficult to manage its large numbers of truant students, is among the first in the nation to experiment with the electronic monitoring.To read The New York Times article, click here.