The New York state legislature has passed a two-year moratorium on the use of facial recognition in schools.
The Associated Press reports that the ban comes after the Lockport (N.Y.) City School District adopted the technology last year as part of its security plans; that led to a lawsuit from civil rights advocates over privacy concerns.
The legislation would prohibit the use of biometric identifying technology in schools until at least July 1, 2022, and direct the state’s education commissioner to issue a report examining its potential impact on student and staff privacy and recommending guidelines.
[FROM 2019: New York state wants Lockport district to delay facial recognition system]
The Lockport district activated its system in January after meeting conditions set by state education officials, including that no students be entered into the database of potential threats.
Administrators have said the system is capable of alerting staff to guns as well as sex offenders, suspended staff members and other people flagged by law enforcement or prohibited by court order from being in schools.
If the moratorium is signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it would effectively shut down the Lockport district’s system until the education commissioner’s study is conducted or the moratorium is ended, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which sued in June to have the system deactivated.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two district parents, is pending.
“We’ve said for years that facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies have no place in schools, and this is a monumental leap forward to protect students from this kind of invasive surveillance,” Stefanie Coyle, deputy director of the NYCLU’s Education Policy Center, said in a written statement. “Schools should be an environment where children can learn and grow, and the presence of a flawed and racially-biased system constantly monitoring students makes that impossible.”
Facial recognition is used in places like airports and stadiums, but so far it is rare in public schools.
Lockport Superintendent Michelle Bradley has said the system does not collect or store any personally identifiable or other information until a match is made and confirmed by school staff, who would receive an alert from the system.
