NovaTracker Puts an End to Playing Hooky

June 4, 2008
GPS World

A Dallas high school is using a GPS wireless device in a pilot program to track truant students who are under court order to attend class, according to the units' supplier, NovaTracker.

At Bryan Adams High School, chronically truant teenagers are enrolled in the program by order of a Dallas County (Texas) truancy court. A year ago, truant teenagers at the school wore electronic ankle bracelets, the same kind often used on criminals, as part of a previous pilot study.

In this current pilot program, students are instead equipped with NovaTracker's GuardTrax GPS units. They are required to enter a code indicating when they have arrived at school and when they have returned home. At any time, a supervisor can detect a student's location in real-time using Internet tracking software, according to the company. NovaTracker has further programmed in a geofence around the school's campus, so that when students arrive they trigger the GuardTrax system to report. If students don't show up, officials can pinpoint their location or contact the student directly.

GuardTrax units combine both cell phone and GPS tracking technology.

"Compared to the previous program, this GuardTrax initiative is working great," said Paul Pottinger, co-director of the truancy pilot program at the high school. "We wanted a GPS unit that offered cell phone capability so we wouldn't have to rely solely upon ankle-bracelet tracking. Besides, GuardTrax costs about half as much as electronic monitoring with ankle bracelets. It will keep kids in school because they know they're being monitored and can stay in phone contact, which they appreciate." Dallas has the seventh worst graduation rate among school systems in the 50 largest urban cities in the United States, according to America's Promise Alliance, a Washington non-profit organization.