An experimental monitoring program in Texas is keeping kids in school with a combination of GPS monitoring and intense counseling. According to Bexer County Judge Roger Lopez, the AIM (Attendance Improvement Management) program’s success lies in the fact that it’s not just a monitoring program.
“Rather than just slap them with fines, this provides them with counseling services, to try and figure out what the problem is, why are they missing so much class?” Lopez said. In the AIM program, kids carry their devices, punching in a code as soon as they arrive at school and check in with their personal counselors in the morning. They code in at lunch and then again at night. If they don’t check in, or the device reports that they aren’t where they’re meant to be, their councilor will call them right away.
According to Brian Dooley, who works with the program, it’s the combination of counseling and the way the device itself works that makes AIM so successful. Rather than just slapping a GPS monitoring anklet on kids and treating them like paroled felons, AIM gives the kids responsibility for their monitoring device, which is about the size of a smart phone, and a councilor to pay them the kind of attention kids with truancy problems are often missing in their lives.
The fact that the monitoring device is treated as a responsibility the kids are being trusted with, rather than a shackle, is also important. “The point behind that is when someone has a tracking device that’s physically attached to them, they look in the mirror and see themselves as a criminal. Then they start behaving as a criminal,” Dooley says. Kids who have been in the program agree, being responsible for the monitor inspires them to take the process seriously so they can prove that they’re trustworthy. Maybe that’s why AIM is graduating 40 to 50 students in San Antonio alone that otherwise might never have finished school. Hopefully as the program expands it will continue it’s remarkable success.
