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Committee approves substitute to bar school searches of personal-device content
Summary
The House Committee on Education approved House Bill 5598 substitute A, which adds language prohibiting school officials from searching the content of personal electronic devices that schools retain during school hours; sponsor Representative Casimiro and committee members cited student privacy and cyberbullying concerns.
The House Committee on Education approved a substitute for House Bill 5598 on June 10, adding a prohibition on searching the content of students’ personal electronic devices when those devices are retained by schools during the school day.
The substitute adds language that “no school official or agent shall search the content of any personal electronic device covered by this chapter that is retained by the school during school hours,” language the chair said has the support of the ACLU and unions. Committee members noted the bill’s safeguards and said they would allow them to support the measure.
Committee members discussed student safety and discipline as central considerations. A committee speaker cited a survey figure that about 30% of middle-school students in the state reported being cyberbullied within the past year, and members said technology has intensified school-climate challenges that educators must manage.
Representative Casimiro, who led work on the bill and formally moved for passage, said: “I enthusiastically make a motion to move House Bill 5598 sub A.” The motion was seconded and the committee approved the substitute and voted to pass the bill.
The vote moves the substitute forward in the legislative process; the committee did not record additional amendments during today’s session. Representatives who spoke in favor emphasized the bill’s balance of student privacy protections and school-safety exceptions already in the text.
Next steps: the committee’s favorable action forwards the substitute for consideration by the full House (the legislative calendar and subsequent steps were not specified in the transcript).
