Committee backs consent‑based rules for facial recognition in schools, sends bill to Committee of the Whole

The House Education Committee voted unanimously to send Senate Bill 143 to the Committee of the Whole after hearing testimony for and against regulated school use of facial recognition technology.

Senate Bill 143 establishes narrow, consent‑oriented guardrails for facial recognition and other biometric processing in K‑12 schools. Sponsors framed the bill as a balance between school safety and student privacy: it permits use in specific safety scenarios — an articulable threat to a school, locating a missing student who left campus without permission, or locating a student in danger from a noncustodial parent — but otherwise restricts schools and contractors from processing students’ biometric identifiers without consent.

Key provisions and definitions - Consent: The bill requires written consent before a student’s biometric identifier is processed by a school or its contractor. For kindergarten through fifth grade, parental or legal guardian consent is required; the bill’s language treats sixth grade and up differently, allowing student opt‑out/consent provisions subject to parental process in many districts (interpretation questions were raised and sponsors and witnesses said they would clarify the form language). - Narrow safety exemptions: Schools may use…