School officials say the devices improve security and increase attendance rates, a figure that's important because some school funding is tied to attendance. The Spring district uses the tracking system to find students counted absent by classroom teachers.
Often, the student is somewhere else on campus, allowing the district to recover $194,000 in state funding since December 2008, said Christine Porter, Spring's associate superintendent for financial services.


I have no problem with this. I remember in my Junior and Senior year in HS we had to wear ID cards at school. They didn't track us, but you were required to wear them, visibly, at all times. If you forgot to bring it, you got a nice little orange paper pinned to your shirt, which also served as your Saturday detention slip.