Kids' truancy to prompt text message to parents

Parents at Amphitheater, Sahuarita and Empire high schools can sign up for a trial run of a system that tells them immediately if their kids are absent without leave.

Australia-based MGM Wireless introduced the Messageyou system three years ago to schools Down Under, where it is now used by more than 200 secondary schools, the company's Web site says.

The three local districts are now beginning a four-month test of the system, said Robert Samuelsen, a Vail resident and representative of California-based SC Capital Partners, which is carrying out the trials in Pima County.

High-tech tools to keep tabs on local students' whereabouts are not new to some parents.

Tucson Unified School District officials said in May that they were testing a program similar to the Global Positioning System on three school buses this year to track young students' travel. For a fee, devices let administrators, teachers and parents know when students get on a bus, when they get off, where they are at noon and when they're dropped off.

Some districts here let parents go online to track attendance and grades, e-mail teachers and even check what their kids buy for lunch.

Software for the automated-attendance-notification system being tested now is adapted to each school's existing computer systems and programs. Parents can sign up for the new service.

As school staffers input attendance records into their database, a text message will be sent to parents of teens with unexcused absences. The message will be sent immediately and include the name of the student.

"The problem is always trying to get ahold of parents," said Sahuarita Unified School District Superintendent Jay St. John. "There is a state law that by 10 o'clock in the morning you have to contact them if their kids aren't in school. At the high school we like to do it every period. We have a phone master system that's kind of a hollow recorded voice that calls at home and says, 'Your kid's not in school.' "

Substitute for current system

Unlike the generic telephone messages, the text messages include students' names and eliminate the possibility of students' erasing messages from their home answering machines before their parents hear it, Samuelsen said.

"Before this system, we would usually wait until about second period and we'd go through our attendance. If a student was absent for two consecutive classes, a secretary would make phone calls, usually to the home," said Empire High Assistant Principal Matt Donaldson.

It would be a timesaver, said Deaun Nieto, if Empire would purchase the software system at the end of the pilot program in November. Nieto handles attendance issues for the school.

"Normally I would have to run a report, see who's absent and who hasn't called in yet and call them myself. I have several numbers for each kid, and what I usually do is start with mom's home number and work from there until I reach somebody," Nieto said. "It would save me time if everybody was on it."

Empire High students returned to school July 21 and administrators have been using the text-messaging system for a few weeks. Donaldson estimates between 40 and 45 percent of Empire High parents are participating in the test run. If the service company could expand notification to include e-mails, the assistant principal said, the number of parents signed up would greatly increase.

Students may also be notified

Sherri Stogsdill, whose daughter Sheena is a freshman at Sahuarita High, signed up for the pilot program hoping to be in closer communication with the school.

"The principal had said that if anything is going on at school, they would let the parents know" via text message, Stogsdill said. "It's quicker than a phone call. Their main goal is just to inform the parents quicker and also to let the parents know if their child doesn't make it to school. If something major is happening at school, you can be reached anywhere — if you're at work, out shopping, you're going to get it right then and there."

Sahuarita freshman Ashley Alexander thinks the notification system will benefit parents.

"I think it's a great idea for school administrators to send text messages to parents' cell phones because it lets the parent know if their child is ditching school," she said. "Not only that, it's less stress on the parents because they don't have to worry if their child went to school or not."

The district also wants to send text messages or e-mails to students when their parents are contacted.

"It's a very powerful message you're sending to kids, saying, 'We know you are not here and you need to be here.' I think it will really help cut down on the number of unexcused absences," Donaldson said.

Schools picked for profiles

Tucson was chosen for the U.S. testing of the software in part because the company already had contacts in the education field here and because of the area's "demographic mix," Samuelsen said. Text messages can be sent in different languages, including English, Spanish and French.

"We picked three different schools with very different profiles of students," he said.

Amphi is an inner-city school with a large minority and immigrant population. Sahuarita is growing quickly, and tech-savvy Empire serves a large portion of middle- and upper-class students, he said.

"Our district was intrigued by the opportunity to instantaneously communicate with parents," said Marco Domin-guez, assistant principal at Amphitheater High School. "The only drawback is there is a cost associated with it. Unfortunately, we live in an economically depressed area."

The cost to parents is the amount their cellular telephone carrier charges for text messaging.

Speed, versatility lauded

Though Samuelsen, the software representative, said a price for the system hasn't been set yet for U.S. schools, Amphitheater Public Schools General Counsel Todd Jaeger projects the software would cost several thousand dollars, plus there would be a charge for each text message sent.

Still, Dominguez would like the district to buy the software system if the test run is successful.

"The new text system … is fabulous. You can put in information that parents want to know. If there's ever an emergency at school … you can text that information right to them. The versatility is really great."