GENERAL

The Knox County Schools (KCS) system equips schools with video camera systems which are intended to help school administrators monitor student behavior and to promote safety within the school as a whole. 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 period of time (30 days). Video recordings may be stored for up to 30 days after initial recording, whereupon such recordings may be erased/overwritten. Video recordings stored after 30 days would be rare and may occur in areas without significant activity within a school.

For the purposes of this policy, the term “video” is considered to include still photographs or still photographic frames captured from video files as well as video from any camera permanently affixed to a school facility.

SCHOOL SYSTEM PERSONNEL ACCESS TO SURVEILLANCE VIDEO

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

School principals, their designated representatives, and other district supervisory personnel may request saved video for a particular day and time period by contacting the school’s security officer and/or the Knox County Schools Security Department. The security department will arrange to retrieve the requested video and format it for further use 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

Unless there is an incident which requires disciplinary or administrative action, there is no expectation that the video files captured by any KCS school surveillance video system will be archived.

School surveillance 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. Such video files will be archived by the Knox County Schools and retained for one year or until any disciplinary or administrative action associated with the video is complete – whichever is greater.

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 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 other district supervisory personnel.

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.
• T.C.A. § 10-7-504 (a)(4).
• 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