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Bill to limit AI-driven student discipline draws broad testimony over surveillance and safety
Summary
Substitute Senate Bill 5,956 would prohibit automated decision systems and certain school surveillance technologies from being the sole basis for student-discipline decisions and restrict facial-recognition and biometric inferences. Advocates argued it protects marginalized students; industry witnesses warned the bill’s real‑time exceptions are too broad or undefined.
Lawmakers heard lengthy testimony on Substitute Senate Bill 5,956, which would restrict how Washington public schools use automated decision systems — including AI and machine-learning tools — in student-discipline and surveillance contexts. Committee counsel Megan Wargack told members the bill bans using automated systems as the sole or determinative basis for emergency removal, suspension, expulsion or assignment to alternative settings and bars certain biometric inferences (such as deducing emotional states or gender identity).
Sponsor Senator Tawanna Nobles said the bill is intended to establish…
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