For Black students in Washington, student discipline and “school safety” systems are not neutral. They can determine whether school is experienced as a place of belonging and opportunity or as a pipeline to exclusion, criminalization, and long-term economic harm.

Substitute Senate Bill 5956 (SSB 5956) did not arrive in Olympia by accident, and it did not come from an agency request or a think tank. BESR conceived this bill. We drafted it. And we staffed the institutional support, through community power, that carried it through the legislature. When Black families needed protection from algorithmic discipline and biometric surveillance, we did not wait for someone else to write it.

The bill names a hard truth: when schools use AI, automated decision systems, and surveillance technologies in discipline and safety contexts, those tools can amplify existing disparities and contribute to disproportionate monitoring and punishment of Black students.

Washington’s students, families, and educators are navigating a rapidly changing landscape where:

• Technology is moving faster than policy. Tools are being adopted before communities have clear rules, transparency, or accountability.
• Automated outputs can be treated like facts. Flags, classifications, and “alerts” can be mistaken for evidence instead of prompts for careful investigation.
• Predictive labeling can harden bias. “Risk” predictions and watchlists can follow students and shape adult decisions, even when those labels are wrong or unchallengeable.
• Surveillance can violate dignity and privacy. Biometric tools that claim to infer emotions, mental health, or identity characteristics cross a line that undermines trust and student well-being.