Dive Brief:

• The parents of an austic student are demanding that schools in Kokomo, IN, add cameras in special education classrooms.
• The demand for cameras is a response to injuries their son sustained while at school.
• Advocates for cameras say the recording devices make it easier to investigate potential abuse, but those opposed say cameras encroach on the rights of teachers and other students. 

Dive Insight:

Classroom cameras ensure educators don't engaging in any illegal or harmful uses of restraint or seclusion — a growing issue that is most prevalent in special education cases. Disabled students, such as those with autism, are almost six times as likely to be restrained at school than their non-disabled peers, according to Mississippi America Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Jennifer Riley-Colins, who has paterned with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to monitor the discipline of disabled and minority K-12 students in that state. 

This reality has many other states and schools considering legislation that would place cameras in classrooms. In February, a Texas state senator proposed the installation of video cameras in all enclosed K-12 classrooms where special education students are taught. Whenever bills like these arise, privacy concerns typically lead to them being shot down.