Can Parents See School Security Camera Video When Their Child Is Involved in an Incident?

No. Jefferson County Public Schools has not published a rule that lets a parent watch school security video, or take a copy home, because their child was in an incident.

The 2026 to 2027 Student Support and Behavior Intervention Handbook, checked October 4, 2026, says JCPS buses are equipped with digital video cameras. It says those recordings may be used to document incidents and responsibility for inappropriate behavior on the school bus. Printed page 37. It does not say a parent gets to see the recording.

Classrooms are a separate fact. On June 9, 2026, JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan wrote Louisville Public Media, "No JCPS classrooms have surveillance cameras in them." That KyCIR report is about classrooms. It is not an inventory of buses, doors, or parking lots.

A clip can still become your child's education record if the school keeps it because it is about your child. Federal guidance then talks about a chance to inspect it. That guidance does not require the school to give you a copy.

Can parents see the security video?

The district's Open Records page, checked October 4, 2026, tells residents of the Commonwealth how to ask for public records in writing. It does not mention security cameras, and it does not promise that a parent can watch a tape.

If staff offer a viewing, that is a choice the school made in that case. It is not a right printed in the handbook or on that page.

When is camera video your child's record?

It is your child's record when it is directly related to your child and the school is actually keeping it.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, is the federal law that limits who can see a student's education records. The U.S. Department of Education Student Privacy Policy Office says a photo or video is an education record, with some exclusions, only when two things are true. It is directly related to a student, and an educational agency or someone acting for it maintains it. That FAQ was opened October 4, 2026. The page does not print a date.

The same page uses a hallway fight as the example. "A school surveillance video showing two students fighting in a hallway, used as part of a disciplinary action, is directly related to the students fighting." A student who is only in the background is a different case. A camera that was never saved, or that the school is not maintaining, is not yet an education record just because a parent wants it to be.

Kentucky's definition is in KRS 160.700. An education record includes data and information directly relating to a student that is collected or maintained by a school or by a person acting for the school, in any medium, and the statute names video. KRS 160.705 says those records are confidential. KRS 160.715 says parents, or eligible students, have the right to inspect and review student education records within a reasonable time of a request.

The handbook's Student Bill of Rights, printed page 48, puts a number on that request. Parents or guardians of students younger than 18, and eligible students age 18 and older, may inspect and review the student's educational records within 45 days of the day the school receives a request for access. The same page says that to inspect, review, or transfer educational records, the parent or eligible student must complete the Student Educational Request Form. The list of what a school file holds names grades, test results, health records, attendance, and temporary disciplinary records. It does not name security video.

There is a law enforcement split, and JCPS has not said which office keeps incident video. The federal FAQ says records a law enforcement unit creates and maintains for a law enforcement purpose are not education records. If that unit gives a copy to another part of the district, for example for discipline, that copy can become an education record when it is directly related to a student and the school maintains it. Kentucky's definition in KRS 160.700 has the same kind of exclusion for law enforcement unit records created for law enforcement.

A November 15, 2024 Attorney General decision about Fayette County Public Schools, not JCPS, walked through a version of that split. In the November 15, 2024 decision, the district said the surveillance video was created by the district, not by its police department, and that a copy was given to the police at their request. The Attorney General said that copy stayed an education record.

What if other students are in the video?

If redaction cannot be done without destroying the meaning, the parent of each student the video directly relates to has a right to inspect the entire record. A copy is still not required.

KRS 61.878(1)(k), in the text checked October 4, 2026, excludes "All public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited by federal law or regulation or state law." FERPA is the federal law schools cite. KRS 160.705 is the state confidentiality rule. KRS 61.878(4) says that if any public record contains material which is not excepted under that section, the public agency shall separate the excepted and make the nonexcepted material available for examination.

The U.S. Department of Education's FAQ on a video that is an education record for more than one student, undated on the page, says this. When a video is an education record of multiple students, FERPA in general requires the school to allow, upon request, a parent of a student to whom the video directly relates to inspect and review the video. FERPA generally does not require the school to release copies. If the school can reasonably redact or segregate the portions directly related to other students without destroying the meaning of the record, it has to do that before access. If redaction cannot reasonably be done, or if doing it would destroy the meaning, the parent of each student to whom the video directly relates has a right under FERPA to access the entire record even though it also directly relates to other students.

That is an inspection discussion. It is not a right to a copy, and it applies only when the video is an education record that directly relates to your child.

The Open Records Act is a different door. It is how any resident asks for public records. It is not the same thing as a parent's FERPA request. In 24 ORD 239, the Attorney General's summary says Fayette County Public Schools did not violate the Open Records Act when it denied a request for a copy of school surveillance video under KRS 61.878(1)(k) and 20 U.S.C. § 1232g when the video recorded multiple students. Fayette told the requester it could not produce copies of video containing students' identities, and that the specified "student's parent may inspect the footage with the appropriate personnel." The opinion cites 99 ORD 217 for the point that FERPA prevents even the parent of a student on a video from inspecting it when other students were captured. A footnote in the same decision says disputes about FERPA itself are beyond the Attorney General's open records review. JCPS has not said whether it will follow the offered inspection or the 99 ORD 217 bar.

Do not read any of that as a promise that JCPS will sit with you and play a tape. Do not read it as a right to leave with a file.

The handbook's directory information list is easy to mix up with this. Printed page 3, and again in the Bill of Rights, the district designates some video or film as directory information when the district filmed it for educational purposes or for promotional use, or when news media filmed it. The same paragraph says photos and video that would generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed are not directory information. Security video of an incident is not on that directory list.

How long does the district have to keep it?

Kentucky law sets a minimum for some recordings. JCPS has not published a security camera retention schedule.

KRS 160.705 says school officials shall keep, for a minimum of one week, a master copy of any digital, video, or audio recording of school activities, without editing, altering, or destroying any portion of that master copy. Secondary copies may be edited. If the recording includes, or allegedly includes, injury to students or school employees, the minimum for that unedited master copy is one month. The same statute says recordings of school activities are subject to the privacy rules in that chapter.

That is a statutory floor for recordings of school activities. It is not a JCPS document that says bus video, or any other security camera the district may have, is saved for a week or a month. The open records page and the bus section of the handbook do not print a retention period.

The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Public School District Records Retention Schedule, series L6463, Facilities Surveillance Video/Audio Recordings, sets those same floors for a master copy, one week, and one month if the recording includes or allegedly includes injury to students or school employees, and it tells districts to keep footage of an incident under investigation until the investigation and legal activity are complete. 23 ORD 011 applied that reading to the Clark County Public School District on January 26, 2023. That decision does not say JCPS still has a recording.

A camera answer can also be that the district does not have the footage. On January 9, 2026, in 26 ORD 004, In re Shane White, the Attorney General could not find that JCPS violated the Open Records Act after JCPS said it did "not possess records responsive to this request" and did "not have security footage of the shed" in a fire on school property. The requester said a safety administrator had talked about video from the area. The Attorney General said bare assertions did not show that the requested surveillance footage existed at the time of the request. A keep time in a statute is not proof that a particular camera was running, or that the file was still there when you asked.

What should a parent ask in writing?

Ask in writing to inspect records of your child, and do not expect a copy if other students are visible.

Two instructions are online, and they do not match. The 2026 to 2027 handbook, printed page 48, says the parent or eligible student must complete the Student Educational Request Form to inspect, review, or transfer educational records. A separate FERPA notice the district still hosts, FERPAparents26.pdf, was opened October 4, 2026. The PDF itself does not print a school year. It says parents or eligible students should submit to the school principal a written request that identifies the records they wish to inspect, and that the school official will make arrangements for access and notify them of the time and place. Its directory list names a photograph. It does not repeat the handbook's sentence about promotional video, or the sentence that excludes video whose disclosure would be an invasion of privacy. The district has not published one reconciled instruction. Use the form the current handbook names, and also write the principal. Name your child, the school, the date, and the place, such as a bus or a named entrance. Ask to inspect any education record of your child from that incident, including any video the school is keeping because it is about your child. Ask for the written reply.

A Kentucky Open Records Act request is the public records path, and KRS 61.872 limits that path to a resident of the Commonwealth. The parent inspection right in the handbook is not that residency rule. The JCPS Open Records page says public records not exempted by law are open for inspection by residents of the Commonwealth upon a written request. It says to submit requests in writing. It says requests are not accepted by phone. It offers a Standardized Open Records Request Form and says requesters are not required to use it. Within five business days after receipt, the Open Records coordinator will notify the applicant by email or mail whether the records are available or why they are not available for inspection. People may inspect nonexempt records during regular administrative office hours, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or may request paper copies. Paper copies are 10 cents a page. For nonwritten records, such as photographs or discs, the page says the fee is the actual cost of producing a copy. That fee sentence is not a promise of a video file.

The page lists VanHoose Education Center, 3332 Newburg Road, Louisville, KY 40218, the email open.records@jefferson.kyschools.us, and 502 485 3583. The phone is on the page. The same page says the request itself is not accepted by phone. KRS 61.872 says a written application may be hand delivered, mailed, sent by facsimile, or sent by email to the custodian's designated email address. KRS 61.880 says a denial has to include the specific exception and a brief explanation of how it applies. A requester who wants the Attorney General to review a denial forwards the written request and the written denial.

JCPS Insider has used that written office before. The September 2026 generative AI request and the district reply are in this open records story. That story is not about cameras.

Write the incident down while you still know the date and the place. Ask to inspect. Keep the reply.