One of Ireland's most hi-tech schools is using internet and telephone technology to combat truancy.
Dunshaughlin Community College in Co. Meath today launched Truancy Call, a system it claims will help teachers to keep closer tabs on truants by calling, texting or emailing their parents if they don't register in the morning.
The system follows up absences each day and records parents answers to excuse their child, or provides immediate access to a staff member if the absence is unauthorised.
Dunshaughlin Community College will be the first school in Ireland to install and use the system, which it has used on a trial basis for the past six weeks.
Principal Seamus Ryan said the school's attendance is higher than the national average, and the system was introduced to streamline administration, giving teaching time back to teachers.
"A lot of admin work is associated with attendance and logging absences. Any system which can cut this down is a benefit [to the school]," he said.
The Parents' Association was consulted before the technology was installed and Mr Ryan said they were "very enthusiastic about the idea".
Managing director of Truancy Call, Stephen Clarke, said with the system parents could be "reassured of their child's safety".
The automated call system claims to have been successful in reducing truancy by 27 per cent in around 160 schools in Scotland.
This isn't the first time Irish schools have turned to information technology in a bid to reduce truancy. Two years ago St Andrew's College in Booterstown, Dublin started using AttendCheck, a biometric fingerprint check-in system.
John Becket, managing director of ByamSys, which created the system, said it's 100 per cent accurate.
"With previous technology one student could swipe in lots of other people, making the statistics unreliable," he said.
"Biometric technology removes the dangers of system abuse and human error."
In the past, monitoring school truancy has been a difficult area of responsibility, divided between the gardaí, school staff and the government.
Under the Education and Welfare Act, schools are now legally responsible for students during school hours.
Dunshaughlin Community College was one of 12 schools worldwide to be selected for development by Microsoft as a "school of the future" through new uses of technology.
Research from the programme, launched by Microsoft's Bill Gates earlier this year, will be used to develop best practices in other schools worldwide.