Touch ID & Passcode is missing from the settings on my 7th Generation iPad. Help Please!

The other day, might have even been the other week, I noticed that my thumbprint wasn’t working. At first I didn’t care because when I log onto my iPad I’m usually on it for a bit. I use it when I’m relaxing at night and in the morning with my cup of coffee. The other day I tried to delete my thumbprint and make a new one when I couldn’t find it anywhere. I searched for “Touch ID”, “fingerprint”, “passcode”, and I’m sure some others. I thought I was going crazy and thought I was just missing it…. Until I started to google, looking for someone with the same issue. I found someone on here asking the same question but it was from 2019. Please tell me that I’m not the only one having this issue. There were 3 possible solutions and I had already tried 2 of them and the 3rd makes me unhappy.

1. Restart:  Press On/Off button until the Slide to Power Off slider appears, select Slide to Power Off and, after It shuts down, press the On/Off button until the Apple logo appears.
2. Reset:  Press the Home and On/Off buttons at the same time and hold them until the Apple logo appears (about 10-15 seconds).
3. Restore:  Connect your iPhone to iTunes on your computer, backup, and then select Restore to Factory.

I powered off my iPad using the home button and holding the power button and the home button at the same time.

These are from 2019. Anyone have any other solutions? I’m going to look some more on the web. There has to be a solution out there that doesn’t have me doing a factory reset!!