Alabama Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, is adding requirements to a newly-created $500,000 grant program designed to help schools place cameras in self-contained special education classrooms.
The $500,000 Cameras in the Classroom Grant was made available in 2023 as a part of the implementation of Tyler’s Law in the state. The law is named for Kimberly McFadden’s son, who she believes was physically abused in his school in South Carolina.
The entire amount of state funding for cameras in special education classrooms has gone to Madison City this year; if the state includes more money in its budget, it would become available Oct. 1. No other school districts asked for the money, according to state superintendent Eric Mackey.
Orr and special education advocates say they hope more districts will add cameras.
“These cameras act as a voice for a lot of children,” said McFadden, who believes cameras are a necessary protection for children who are unable to speak for themselves. Videos of classroom activity could be used to verify or dismiss allegations of abuse or neglect in their classrooms or at school.
Tyler’s Law sets out a process allowing schools to install cameras in self-contained special education classrooms and requires them to maintain that video for 90 days. Neither the law nor the budget document states how the grant money should be distributed.
“Obviously we knew it wouldn’t go very far, but it would help some, and some is better than none,” Orr said.
Last year, the state department didn’t send a written notice out to let schools know the funding was available.
“The idea that we didn’t even send out a notice or any type of awareness, memorandum to the schools or LEAs to inform them of this money being there - I’m surprised,” Orr said. He told AL.com he plans to add language to the proposed state budget that directs the department to do so.
Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey told AL.com he believes putting cameras in these classrooms is a good idea, but there was little interest in the funding.
“Some [districts] did [show interest], but in the end they didn’t take it.”
Mackey told AL.com that because there was little interest among districts, he asked Madison City Superintendent Ed Nichols if the district could use the funding to help with their camera system and Nichols said yes. Mackey said no paperwork was involved.
The district will get the full $500,000; any unspent funds will go back to the department. It installed cameras in 2022 after an internal investigation revealed mistreatment of nonverbal students in a self-contained classroom at Discovery Middle School.
Next year, Mackey said, “We’re going to cast a wide net.”
“I think it’s great that Madison City Schools is being reimbursed for some of what they’ve spent,” McFadden said, but added that she hoped the funding would help schools with financial challenges and those with high percentages of nonverbal children be able to install cameras.
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In February, Madison City board attorney William Sanderson told AL.com the cameras are working as expected.
“We believe the cameras have proven to be useful for ensuring the safety of students, promoting transparency with parents, and protecting staff against unfounded allegations of wrongdoing,” Sanderson said.
Orr said he wants to keep the $500,000 line item for the grant program in the budget for next year, but isn’t sure how much more schools might need. The initial amount, he said, was based on Madison Superintendent Nichols estimating the cost at $3,000 for each camera. The biggest cost is typically storage of footage.
AL.com talked with the technology director at Dothan City Schools, Jeremy Green, who oversees the district’s camera operating systems. The system installed cameras in common areas and classrooms among their 17 schools a couple of years ago, he said, and continue to add cameras when possible.
Green said a good cost estimate to start with is five cameras per school, costing around $200 each. Storing video for 90 days would take 64TB of storage. Green said a 16TB network video recorder or NVR costs about $5,000.
Rounding up, AL.com calculated a maximum cost of $5,500 per camera and NVR, or $27,500 per school building. Covering all of the state’s 1,358 schools with five cameras and five NVRs would cost $37.3 million.
Orr said Tyler’s Law was patterned after Florida’s law, which also requires school districts to archive the video for 90 days.
“I don’t want to give up on it,” Orr said, “but if this 90 days is problematic - we can’t go to 10 days, but maybe there’s a happy medium there where we can get them to archive the video.”
McFadden said keeping the video for 90 days is essential and should be considered the minimum.
“The problem with nonverbal children and children with disabilities is they’re not just going to come home and say something happened,” she said. “It can take months to figure out what’s going on.”