Some Boston kids are going to get a real wake-up call this fall from David Ortiz

Boston Public Schools today announced a new service this fall that will let middle-school and high-school students get a morning wake-up call - voiced by Big Papi.

The idea is to encourage kids to get to school on time, and uses a services BPS already employs to send out bulk voice messages to homes. Parents will be able to opt in to the wake-up service through their children's schools.

In a statement, Mayor Walsh said:

It is our hope that by offering fun, outside-the-box tools such as this, we will reduce chronic absenteeism in our schools in a way that is enjoyable for our students. I want to thank Big Papi and the Boston Red Sox for supporting this effort - we are fortunate to have a community of partners that are passionate and committed to seeing our students succeed.

The program is an extension of a pilot wake-up program at the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, where 24 students who had problems getting to school on time last year got morning wake-up calls.

And the calls are part of a broader initiative to curb tardiness and absenteeism. Burke and English High Schools now have a program that pairs chronically absent students with mentors who try to get them to go to class. BPS is starting to roll out a similar program as early as kindergarten,