SPRINGFIELD – Parents can now enjoy the peace of mind that videos of their students at school won’t be shared with unauthorized parties under a new law sponsored by State Senator Laura Murphy (D-Des Plaines) removing the video recording requirement from the Illinois edTPA teacher licensing assessment.

“In order to gain a teaching license, educators in training have been forced to put kids’ privacy—and in some cases, their safety—at risk,” Murphy said. “With new cybersecurity threats being discovered every day, this law ensures our students are protected.”

Under the new law, student teachers cannot be required to videotape themselves or their students in order to earn a license.

Previously, student teachers in Illinois had to record themselves and their students on video to pass the edTPA, an assessment required for their teaching license. Videos were then uploaded and sent to a third-party vendor for evaluation. The edTPA required just two short segments of video, but student teachers were encouraged to record hours of footage to choose from.

The law was sponsored in the House by State Representative Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago).

“Student teachers need to spend their training time learning how to be teachers, not learning how to be video producers,” Guzzardi said. “Our bill makes sure that sensitive student data is protected, and that teacher trainees can get away from the distraction of this high-stakes film project and back to their real work: preparing to educate the next generation.”

The law still allows teacher education programs to videotape for in-house teaching purposes, and licensed teachers and administrators can still film students in order to gain National Board Certification or for training, sporting events or promotional purposes.

“Uploading videos of children to a third-party vendor is unnecessary and potentially dangerous,” Murphy said. “There are more secure ways to assess our student teachers’ performance.”

The law, originally Senate Bill 808, was signed into law Friday and takes effect immediately.

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