GENERAL

The Knox County Schools (KCS) system equips school buses with video camera systems which are intended to help school administrators monitor student behavior and safety and to help transportation supervisors assess driver performance. Video is also made available to law enforcement officials in certain circumstances in order to assist with investigations.

The video systems in place collect video and save it for a short period of time (24-48 hours). The video systems operate when buses are in operation, and since most buses are used on a daily basis, it would be unusual for a system to have video footage more than 48 hours old.

For the purposes of this policy, the term “video” is considered to include still photographs or still photographic frames captured from video files.

SCHOOL SYSTEM PERSONNEL ACCESS TO SCHOOL BUS VIDEO

In order to maintain the integrity of bus video for disciplinary and legal actions, access must be limited, and chain of custody strictly maintained. Therefore, only school security officers and KCS Transportation Department personnel will be equipped and authorized to recover video storage cards from bus video systems. Additionally, the Knox County Schools Transportation Department will be the only school system entity to maintain the necessary technology to format the bus video files for viewing by school administrators and other persons or entities.

School principals, their designated representatives, and other district supervisory personnel may request video for a particular day and time period by contacting the Knox County Schools Transportation Department. The transportation department will arrange to retrieve the requested video and format it for viewing by the requesting administrator. Law enforcement officials may request video in the same manner, but KCS will consult with the Knox County Law Department and that department will review this request prior to the release of any video to ensure the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and other student privacy statutes and regulations are not violated. 

VIDEO RETENTION

There is no expectation that the short duration daily video files captured by any KCS school bus video system will be archived.

School bus video which is formatted and provided to school administrators will be archived and retained for a minimum of one year or until any disciplinary or administrative action associated with the video is complete – whichever is greater.

It is presumed any video files provided to law enforcement will be archived by the receiving entity. Therefore, these video files will only be archived for one year by the Knox County Schools.

PARENTAL ACCESS TO VIDEO

Parent(s) or legal guardian(s) may request to view archived video that is associated with an incident or disciplinary action involving their (his, her) student. This request should be made in writing to the Chief of Communications for the Knox County Schools. If a principal receives a request for a bus video, that request must be forwarded to the Chief of Communications. The video will be prepared for viewing to ensure to the extent possible that no violation of any privacy statute or regulation would occur through the requested viewing.

Parents/legal guardians must view the prepared video in the presence of either a school principal, the Chief of Security, or his/her designee, or the Transportation Safety Officer.

If a parent or legal guardian wishes to view video that has been provided to a law enforcement agency, the parent must address that request directly to the appropriate law enforcement entity.

Copies of video will not be released except through appropriate legal discovery or court action.  

Legal References:

• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1232g et seq.
• Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act for Elementary and Secondary Schools, U.S. Department of Education (October 2007), available at
  http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/safeschools/index.html.

Approved as to Legal Form
By Knox County Law Director 1/11/2024
/Gary T. Dupler/Deputy Law Director