A Senate Bill which would require video cameras in certain public education classrooms was the source of confusion during Thursday’s Education committee.
If passed, Senate Bill 632 would require contained, special education classrooms to be recorded throughout the school day and have video and audio footage preserved for three months following the initial filming.
A number of Senators expressed concern over language in the proposed legislation concerning a child’s privacy which resulted in representatives from the Department of Education coming before the committee to address concerns.
Questions dealing with a child’s consent to recording, the privacy of the recordings and who would be able to access the footage were all addressed by Sarah Stewart of the state’s Department of Education.
According to Stewart, the bill currently has little language concerning the consent of students who would be filmed, while also establishing that attained footage would only be eligible for review upon request by school administrators , school employees, parent or legal guardians and law enforcement officers.
Currently the bill has a fiscal note set at $7 million which would allocate $2,600 for recording equipment in each classroom.
Following a recess, the committee reconvened to further explain the legislation and ultimately moved to include a number of amendments from members. Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, motioned to add a provision which would delete footage following it’s initial three month preservation, while co-chair, Sen. Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, created a conceptional amendment which would change language within the legislation and require that all self contained classrooms implement video and audio recording.
Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, and Sen. Charles Trump, R-Morgan, also motioned to add amendments. After further discussion, committee members adopted language for a committee substitute and reported the bill to the full Senate following a second reference to finance.
Members also reviewed an originating bill which would expand the applicability of educational facilities for the West Virginia College Prepaid Tuition and Savings Program. Following review of the legislation, Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, cited similarities between the originating legislation and House Bill 2793 which passed the House earlier this month.
The Senator questioned the committee chair to ask why the committee would want to originate a bill instead of focusing on reviewing and potentially amending existing legislation. Chairwoman Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, stated that although similar legislation exists, the creation of the bill wasn’t intended to change anything the House had already completed.
“It was brought to my attention that this legislation needed to be completed so I went forward in creating it,” Rucker explained.
Following discussion of the bill, the bill was voted to be reported to the full Senate.
