How to skip Internet Recovery to boot from USB

If you Option Boot you should be presented with the Apple boot picker menu which will show all local bootable media (internal drive, USB drive) and also any NetBoot servers on the local network. If you don't see your Catalina USB installer, then try using another brand of USB drive since Macs can be very particular about the USB sticks used for booting. The quality of many USB sticks is just awful.

If you are booting Macs with a T2 security chip, then you must first boot into Recovery Mode to disable security features to allow booting from a USB drive.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

Are the computers being managed by an MDM server?

Is this what you are doing?

Bootable USB Installers for macOS

First, review this introductory article: Create a bootable installer for macOS. Second, read this How To outline for creating a bootable macOS installer. Simply use the Terminal command by copying and pasting the command line into the Terminal window. You will need a 16GB USB flash drive that has been partitioned and formatted for use with OS X as well as an installer for Catalina.

Drive Partition and Format

1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities' folder.
2. After Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry with the mfg.'s ID and size) from the side list.
3. Click on the Erase button in the Disk Utility toolbar. Name the drive, "MyVolume". <---- IMPORTANT!
4. In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
5. Click on the Apply button and wait for the Done button to activate. When it does click on it.
6. Quit Disk Utility.

Create Installer

Open the Terminal in the Utilities' folder. Copy the command line (begins with "sudo") and paste that entire command line from below at the Terminal's prompt:

Command for macOS Catalina:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

Press RETURN. You will be asked for your admin password. It will not echo to the Terminal window. Then press RETURN again. Wait for the return of the Terminal prompt signifying the process has completed. It takes quite some time to finish. Be patient.

The bootable installer can be used to install macOS Catalina. Shut the computer down. Insert your flash drive into a USB port. Start the computer like so:

Boot Using OPTION key

1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the  "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the Boot Manager screen appears.
4. Select the disk icon for the USB flash drive.
5. Click on the arrow button under the disk icon.

Try an SMC reset and a PRAM reset (hold the PRAM reset for a full minute so it activates several times -- some newer Macs will just begin to boot after the first activation).

If you cannot get the Apple boot picker menu after the resets, then you may have a keyboard or Logic Board issue as that is a basic hardware feature of Macs and not much can interfere with it. You can try using an external keyboard to Option Boot.

What is the exact model of these laptops? You can get this information by clicking on the Apple menu and selecting "About this Mac".

See if the laptops qualify for any of these free Apple repair programs:

https://support.apple.com/exchange_repair