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                <p>CONWAY, Massachusetts (Reuters Life!) – Chronically tardy and truant students at a Massachusetts high school are getting a rude awakening -- a pre-recorded morning wake-up call from their school principal.</p>
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The so-called "robo-calls" that began on Wednesday are aimed at rousting about 500 students, the worst-offending sleepyheads, from bed and getting them to school on time.</p>
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"It's 6:15 and it's Durfee High School calling," booms the voice of Principal Paul Marshall of B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River, according to Vice Principal Ross Thibault.</p>
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Robo-calls are typically used to notify parents of weather-related school delays and cancellations.</p>
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Durfee joins other U.S. schools in Massachusetts and Illinois and New York which have taken on the added role of alarm clock to combat high rates of tardiness and absenteeism.</p>
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In New York City the wake-up calls feature the voice of former professional basketball star Magic Johnson.</p>
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At Durfee High School in Fall River, about 46 miles south of Boston, 20 percent of the student body will be getting routine phone calls at home at 6:15 a.m. The school day's first class begins at 7:45 a.m.</p>
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Administrators hope the effort will boost attendance from 88 percent now to at least 95 percent.</p>
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"Historically, we have battled attendance problems. We are an urban district and our attendance has always been a concern," Thibault said.</p>
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The school resorted to the calls after failing to improve attendance with punishments like detention or enforced study hours at schools, he added.</p>
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(Reporting by Zach Howard; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton.)</p>
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