"Mitching" off school won't hold the same temptation for students if a pilot system which sends text messages to the parents of absent children proves successful.
Portmarnock Community School and Manor House in Raheny, Dublin, are the first schools in Ireland to pilot the new system of notifying parents.
A computerised roll-call database will record absent students and automatically send out a standardised text message to parents notifying them their child missed the morning roll-call.
"It's a simple way to filter out students who are missing. If the absenteeism is legitimate, parents can ignore the message. If not, they can ring the school," said Portmarnock Community School principal Mr David Sweeney.
"We introduced it to comply with new legislation in the Education and Welfare Act which requires the schools to notify parents and for parents to take more responsibility for the whereabouts of their children," he said.
The schools have been piloting the technology since mid-March and hope to have it operating fully by the start of the new school year next September.
Operators Dataset IT Systems is the only company in Ireland operating the technology. "It seemed like an obvious thing to do with today's technology. Schools can notify 100 people with half a dozen clicks of the mouse," said managing director Mr Tim Rafferty.
"If the students know their parents are going to be told that morning, they'll be less likely to do it. They get into all kinds of trouble when mitching."
Interest in the system is growing in several schools, said Mr Rafferty.