New York Becomes the First U.S. State to Ban Biometric Tech in Schools After Lockport's Facial-Recognition Rollout

In January 2020, Lockport City School District in upstate New York activated Aegis, a facial- and object-recognition surveillance system built on software from Canada's SN Technologies, using about $1.4 million of a $4.2 million allocation under New York's Smart Schools Bond Act, intended to flag registered sex offenders, expelled students, and weapons entering school grounds.

The rollout drew immediate opposition from the New York Civil Liberties Union and privacy researchers, who pointed to independent research on facial-recognition accuracy showing significant racial and gender disparities; reporting on Lockport's specific system cited an audit finding its algorithm was substantially more likely to misidentify Black women than white men. In December 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation imposing a statewide moratorium barring public and private schools from purchasing or using biometric identifying technology until at least 1 July 2022 or until the state Education Commissioner authorised use following a mandated study -- described by the ACLU and GovTech as the first law of its kind in the United States specifically targeting biometric technology in K-12 schools.

Follow-up reporting by NY Focus in 2023 found the picture more mixed after the moratorium's initial expiration: the promised statewide study and clear follow-on rules were delayed, leaving districts and vendors in regulatory ambiguity, and Lockport itself became the subject of related litigation over its earlier use of the system -- underscoring that a landmark ban does not by itself guarantee a clean, permanently resolved outcome.