California Schools Tracking Truant Kids with GPS

A California school district is taking new measures to combat truancy – GPS.  The Anaheim Union High School District is handing out GPS devices to problem students, who are then required to check in during the day to make sure they are exactly where they are supposed to be.

There are about 75 kids enrolled in the initial GPS program, from the seventh and eighth grade district population.  Instead of receiving detentions or prosecutions for their tardiness, students are instead given a new gadget, although it does come with a number of conditions.  Students have to check in five times per day with the device;  when they leave for school in the morning, when they arrive at school, lunchtime, when they leave school, and at 8PM every day.

Along with this fairly extensive intrusion, students also receive a phone call every day to wake them up in time for school, and also have to enter into a relationship with an adult coach who calls them three times per week to check up on their progress.  While these measures probably feel like a punishment to the students involved in these trials, apparently this is not the goal of the exercise.

“The idea is for this not to feel like a punishment, but an intervention to help them develop better habits and get to school,” said Miller Sylvan, regional director for AIM Truancy Solutions.  However, not all the parents involved are supportive of the program.  “I feel like they come at us too hard, and making kids carry around something that tracks them seems extreme,” said Raphael Garcia, adding “This makes us seem like common criminals.”

The program is also expensive to run, with each device costing between $300 to $400 and $8 per day to run during the six week trial period.  With parents responsible for any lost or broken GPS devices, getting to school on time is not going to be the only concern for the kids in this program.