As head of the Associated Student Body at Grossmont High School in California, Jeff Meredith has cashed bad checks intended to pay for everything from students' registration fees to yearbooks and gym lockers. Now, whenever parents or students walk into the building with their checkbooks drawn, he refers them to the school's automated teller machine (ATM).

Tired of cutting student programs to cover the cost of bounced checks, Meredith copied a phone number off the cash dispenser inside his local 7-Eleven and placed a call. Weeks later, Grossmont became one of the first high schools in Southern California to provide students and parents with on-campus access to an ATM.

A fixture in malls and shopping centers, ATMs are slowly cropping up in schools, too, research suggests. According to a national survey from the Illinois-based marketing firm Teen Research Unlimited, 6 percent of students ages 12 to 19 reported seeing cash machines in their schools during the 2003 school year. Moreover, 17 percent of students in the same age group said they had their own ATM or debit cards, a five-percent increase from three years ago, according to researchers.

Aside from offering a convenience to students and parents in need of quick cash, proponents say the machines can be a real money-making proposition for schools struggling to make do amid shrinking budgets.

Meredith estimates Grossmont's ATM did approximately 700 transactions during its first year in operation. With a service charge of $1.25 per transaction, he said, the school already is making headway in recouping the nearly $12,000 it spent to purchase the machine and its accompanying maintenance contract. Meredith expects the number of transactions to increase at least 30 percent this coming school year as both parents and students become more comfortable with the machine.

Schools in parts of Oregon and Washington also have begun experimenting with the technology.

At Gresham High School in Oregon, students and parents are charged $1 every time they slide their cards into the school's ATM. The school reportedly is on pace to own the machine outright within two years, according to Daryl Grove, president of GoodVantage Resources, the company responsible for leasing the machine to Gresham.

Though Grove doesn't bill the ATM as a fundraising tool per se, he says Gresham-- with more than 1,800 students--is big enough to turn a profit off the number of transactions it completes.

More important, the machine gives parents and students one less excuse not to pay their bills, Grove said. "Schools have thousands of dollars owed to them," he explained, conjuring up images of bookkeepers buried under stacks of folders chronicling students' outstanding debts. Instead of holding transcripts and diplomas for ransom, he said, officials can simply point parents in the direction of the ATM.

According to Grossmont's Meredith, parents and students also have found the machine useful during school-sponsored events such as dances and football games.