Legal Brief
Balancing Body Camera Use in Schools
BY V. WAYNE YOUNG/School Administrator, April 2022

LAST DECEMBER, a middle school student in Florida used her cellphone video to record a school fight. In sorting the matter out, school administrators, consistent with district policy, insisted the student turn over her phone so they could delete the video. The student refused.

After protracted efforts to obtain compliance, the school resource officer was summoned. His body camera footage, now widely accessible online, captured the unsettling escalation of events that followed and now will serve as a central issue in litigation that has ensued.

Privacy vs. Prevention

The use of body cameras by law enforcement agencies has become common in the United States. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found a majority of police officers favor their use and 93 percent of the general public favors the practice. Some evidence exists that the presence of body cameras has a positive impact on the interactions between police officers and the public.

But research on the effect of body cameras is mixed, and detractors frequently cite privacy issues in their objections to their use. This point is particularly salient in a school setting, where federal law and sometimes state law provide specific privacy protections to students. Overlaying a common public law enforcement practice within a privacy-conscious school environment creates an immediate conflict of divergent goals.

The issue can become more complex if the camera use is in a public setting like a football game or if the camera is activated by routine or benign activity that suddenly develops into some significant event or incident that requires intervention.

FERPA Considerations

The federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act defines “education records” and protects their confidentiality. Video records that directly involve students fall within this definition.

However, FERPA also specifically exempts from this definition video records “created and maintained by a law enforcement unit of an educational agency or institution for a law enforcement purpose.” This area of the law continues to develop, but the general consensus at this time is that a school resource officer’s body camera footage is not subject to FERPA confidentiality requirements.

It would be unwise to view this circumstance as somehow allowing unfettered access to distribution of SRO camera footage. Some states already have adopted restrictions on disclosure of body camera footage, including specific restrictions on school-based footage. In addition, the National Association of School Resource Officers supports specific local district policies restricting the disclosure of body camera video involving students.

If the video footage is being used within the context of school disciplinary proceedings, the school district has likely brought it into the realm of education records, which makes it subject to FERPA confidentiality requirements.

Inevitability and Caution

The proliferation of body cameras in the law enforcement context has been occurring for about a decade. Nationwide, about half of all police agencies employ body cameras routinely, with more than 80 percent of urban law enforcement agencies using them.

Schools that deploy SROs, whether by agreement with a law enforcement agency or as employees of the school district, no doubt will encounter a push toward expanded use of body cameras in the performance of the SRO’s duties. By the same token, school leaders can anticipate the inevitable pushback that will come from individuals and groups that have legitimate concerns about privacy, school climate and other important facets of the issue.

A preemptive approach makes sense. There is much research and many resources readily available that would contribute to a thoughtful community conversation about the use of body cameras in schools. (Start with the NASRO website for excellent information on legal issues.)

Superintendents would be well-advised to anticipate the nature of the conversation and to begin having discussions with their board, school resource officers, parents and district administrators regarding the approach they will take to address the issue of body camera use in schools and on school property.

WAYNE YOUNG is legal counsel to the Kentucky Association of School Administrators in Frankfort, Ky. Twitter: @KASAEdLeader