| TO: | Honorable Jimmie Don Aycock, Chair, House Committee on Public Education |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1380 by Patrick (Relating to the placement of video cameras in self-contained classrooms providing special education services.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted |
The bill would require school districts and charter schools, on the request of a parent, board trustee, or staff member, to provide equipment including video cameras in self-contained classrooms in which students received special services. Each campus that received equipment would be required to place the video camera in a self-contained classroom in which the only students in regular attendance were students who were eligible to take an alternative assessment and were nonverbal or had limited ability to communicate.
The bill would require school districts and charter schools to provide parents with written notice that video monitoring cameras were to be installed prior to installation, but would not require the district to secure parental consent. The bill would prohibit a district or charter school from placing a camera in the classroom of a student whose parent had sent a written objection to the district or charter school within 30 days of notification.
The bill would require a school district or charter school to keep the recorded video for at least six months after it was recorded, and would prohibit regular or continual monitoring of video recorded under this section by a district or charter school.
A school district or charter school would be allowed to solicit and accept gifts, grants, and donations to use for placing video cameras in classrooms.
The bill would apply beginning with the 2013 - 2014 school year.
Before installation of cameras, districts would be required to notify parents in writing that cameras were to be installed. It is assumed that once cameras were installed, notification of parents that cameras were installed would not be required since video surveillance would not require the consent of parents.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is not able to report the number of self-contained classrooms that are used solely for the students described by the bill. However, there are approximately 73,375 students with disabilities being served in self-contained settings. Assuming a request was received for camera installation at each applicable campus and that at least one camera was required for every five students, a minimum of 4,892 cameras would be required to be made available for installation statewide. The estimated minimum cost to purchase an inexpensive camera with limited-quality video or audio is $150 per camera, or $733,800 total. There would be additional costs for installation and maintenance of the cameras.
There would be additional costs for equipment to store the video and keep it secure as well. Districts could also incur costs to purchase masking software in case video became subject to public information requests.
Actual costs would vary depending on whether a request for camera installation was received, how many classrooms were considered self-contained, how many students met the bill's criteria, the number of cameras to be purchased, and whether schools chose to install and maintain the cameras or outsource the installation and maintenance.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | UP, JBi, JSc
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