MACo Policy Associate Drew Jabin submitted testimony to the House Ways & Means Committee to oppose HB 1292 (CF SB 1019) – Public Schools – Special Education Classrooms – Use of Recording Devices. This bill would implement a costly, burdensome mandate for county governments to install and maintain recording devices in any classroom where the majority of students are special education students.

From the MACo Testimony:

The Fiscal Note prepared by the Department of Fiscal Services recognizes direct costs, citing figures into the millions of dollars for each of the larger school systems. Another less clear, but still significant concern is ongoing administrative costs to maintain the resulting footage and fully comply under Maryland’s Public Information Act, especially since this video footage will virtually always contain images of minors. Lastly, there is the cost of training staff and faculty in the purpose and use of these cameras, which would be a time intensive process.

Follow MACo’s advocacy efforts during the 2020 legislative session on MACo’s Legislative Tracking Database.