Sun Sentinal

Cameras are expected to return to Broward County’s special-needs classrooms to help parents determine whether their child may have been abused or mistreated at school. The program, which was last used in Broward schools during the 2023-24 school year, allowed parents to request cameras be placed in their children’s Exceptional Student Education classrooms and allowed the parents to review the footage if they suspected there was an incident. The idea is that many special-needs students are non-verbal or may have difficulty communicating what happened at school, which can be particularly troubling if a child comes home from school agitated or bearing a bruise, advocates for special-needs children say. So at the urging of some Broward parents, the state Legislature agreed in 2021 to designate Broward as the site of a three-year pilot county for a program. From 2021 to 2024, the district received 320 camera-installation requests and 32 parent requests to view footage.