Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) will not allow automated license plate readers on any school property after the School Board voted unanimously to ban them. The ban covers all FCPS property, including schools in the Vienna area.

The board approved the measure on Thursday, Sept. 24, prohibiting the "installation, procurement, or leasing" of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers (ALPRs) on school-owned property, as first reported by FFXnow. The ban does not affect the school system's existing security cameras, speed cameras or school bus stop-arm cameras.

At-large member and Vice Chair Kyle McDaniel introduced the motion. Board member Sandy Anderson seconded it.

McDaniel framed the vote as a boundary-setting moment for the school system's mission.

"We are not a police department. We are an educational institution," McDaniel said at the Sept. 24 meeting. "Our job, our mission, our focus, our budget dollars, are about making sure that 177,000 kids get the best education possible."

The vote was largely preemptive. FCPS does not have any ALPRs installed on school grounds and was not planning to add them, according to school officials. Board members acknowledged they can only control cameras on school property, not on adjacent streets or other parcels.

FCPS stores its existing security camera footage on servers within Fairfax County, not in the cloud. The school system lists a 14-day data retention period, though staff said it can sometimes extend to 30 days.

McDaniel had been working on the proposal for about six weeks before the vote, according to Patch. In a Sept. 23 interview with Patch, he said he wanted state or federal lawmakers to establish stronger rules around the technology. "But until that happens, I don't want these on school property," McDaniel said at the time.

Board member Marcia St. John-Cunning said the district already has adequate security tools in place without expanding into surveillance technology that lacks guardrails.

The advocacy group DeFlock Fairfax endorsed McDaniel's motion before the vote and urged residents to contact their board representatives.

The school board's action follows a broader regional pullback from Flock technology. Arlington County voted Sept. 15 to discontinue its 41 county-leased Flock cameras and begin removing them, InsideNova reported. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously earlier in September to pause new Flock camera installations while its Safety and Security Committee reviews the program. The county's 84 existing police-operated Flock cameras remain active.

The supervisors' Safety and Security Committee is scheduled to meet Oct. 20 to discuss the county's own Flock program. The county has also sent Flock's CEO a letter seeking clarification on data ownership, access and how the company's AI-powered searches work.