In Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil, 20,000 grade school students have recently started wearing uniforms embedded with GPS chips similar to those used in pet trackers. The chips automatically send parents a text message as soon as their children enter the school grounds, or if their children are late for more than 20 minutes.

The microchip is embedded either under the school's coat of arms or in one of the sleeves. According to the city's education secretary Coriolano Moraes, the local government decided to launch the project because parents "would always be surprised when told of the number times their children skipped class."

Vitoria da Conquista's government has spent $670,000 designing and manufacturing shirts for the first 20,000 students. City officials plan to make more so that all 43,000 public school students in the city from ages 4 to 14 can use the high-tech shirts in 2013.

[Image credit: William Murphy]

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This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

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