Truancy costs school districts as much as $50 per day per student. Two California high school students realized that offering a service to combat it was a huge opportunity. The NY Times has more:
Zak Kukoff, 16, and Jonathan Yan, 18, classmates, started TruantToday after Mr. Kukoff skipped a 7 a.m. honors geometry class at Westlake High School. Administrators took two days to call his parents and notify them of his absence.
“An actual person from the school called and said, ‘Your son was absent two days ago and, you know, get on that,’†said Mr. Kukoff, the company’s chief executive. By then, of course, it was far too late to get him back into class. On top of that, the school was expending limited staff resources to make calls that he felt could easily be automated.