(KCEN) -- A Texas school district is now under fire for requiring students to wear electronic tracking chips at school.
The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio will use micro chips to make sure kids are where they are supposed to be, in class.
Students will be required to wear a student ID badge that allows the school to instantly locate any student in the building.
Not only do these cards help locate students on campus, they also help count them and counting students is how schools make money.
For every student counted during attendance, the state pays the district about $30 a day. The district was losing almost 2 million dollars a year because of poor attendance reporting.
So the schools turned to technology to improve the numbers.
Not everyone agrees with the district.
Some students are refusing to wear the tracking cards and the American Civil Liberties Union is weighing in, saying the tracking id's may violate privacy rights.
ACLU policy analyst Jay Stanley said, "The schools talk about security but what's really going on here is budgets and money. It treats children like cattle. Where does this go from here? Today in the schools, tomorrow in the work places and who knows where else."
The school district says attendance numbers are up since the system has been in place.
So the badges are here to stay.
