SAN ANTONIO — Court authorities will be able to track students with a history of skipping school under a new program requiring them to wear ankle bracelets with Global Positioning System monitoring.

But at least one group is worried the ankle bracelets will infringe on students' privacy.

Linda Penn, a Bexar County justice of the peace, said she anticipates that about 50 students — likely to be mostly high schoolers — will wear the thick ankle bracelets during the six-month pilot program announced Friday. She said the time students wear the anklets will be on a case-by-case basis, but she doubted any will wear them the entire half-year.

"We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate," Penn said, linking truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity.

Penn said students in the program will wear the ankle bracelets full-time and will not be able to remove them. They'll be selected as they come through her court, and Penn will target truant students with gang affiliations, those with a history of running away and skipping school, and those who have been through her court multiple times.

Penn said the electronic monitoring is part of a comprehensive program she started four years ago to reduce truancy. She cited programs in Midland and Dallas as having success with similar electronic monitoring measures.

But Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said requiring students to wear the GPS bracelets full-time raises privacy concerns.

"We're all for keeping kids in school, and we applaud any efforts to make that happen," Burke said.

"But the privacy issue: What happens with the bracelet or anklet after school is out? Is that appropriate for the school or courts to know where and what this person is doing outside of school?"

Burke said truant students and runaway kids are different issues.

Device to track truant students raises privacy concerns | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

If a "truancy" law is applied, and the kids put on "parole", I think that should suffice for justification.
As for potential abuse of power, that should be checked but I don't think it should be a reason to prevent this technology from being used.

Absolutely NOT. This is yet another tool that parents can utilize to avoid parenting by putting the tracking responsibility on the district. This is bunk. If the kid doesn't go to school, the parents should be held accountable. A danged tracking bracelet mandated by the state is just flipping ridiculous.

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Once again, the ACLU points to the minority of bad instead of the majority of good...

If they were around at the time, butterknives would've never been legal because they HAVE been used to kill...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

The ACLU is raising it as a "concern", not a deal breaker.
The potential for abuse should not go unrecognized.
Religious groups do something similar when they talk about legislation which prevents discrimination against gays, but want to ensure that it won't infringe upon their religious freedoms.
Like with this case, if the ACLU or religious group tries to use it as an excuse to scuttle the legislation, that would be wrong.

The real issue would be like if a kid was a suspect in a crime (out of school), and the government was allowed to check his whereabouts without condition or any agency to "check" their use of power for potential abuse.
(And anybody who thinks this should be allowed, are you prepared to have an ankle bracelet placed on you then?)

Burke (ACLU) made one comment I find bizarre. "Burke said truant students and runaway kids are different issues". I would think (following the proper guidelines) that "runaway kids" would be another use for this tool. (i.e. habitual run-aways, if such a thing exists)
I have never looked into "runaway kids" issues, so I have no idea if there is a thought that "running away" is a "right" for a kid. I would say no.