Zooming in
The policy change means that recommended book titles must be presented to the board for review, have a 30-day public review period and receive board action for approval.
According to the policy text, librarians and other professional staff shall develop recommendations to be presented to the board based on a number of criteria, including consultation with teachers, extensive review of the material and consideration of the material's context and its fit within district curriculum.
In accordance with state guidelines, the district's collections "shall be evaluated and updated regularly based on the collections' age, relevance, diversity and variety."
According to previous reporting by Community Impact, SB 13 also allows Texas school districts to form a school library advisory council if at least 50 parents or 10% of parents in the district, whichever is less, sign a petition requesting a council. The school library advisory council would be able to make recommendations about books to add or remove from a school's library.
The district will not have an advisory council unless a formal petition compels it, according to board documents. In August, the SCUCISD administration recommended continuing with librarian-led collection development while applying SB 13 requirements.
"This honors professional expertise, maintains access to diverse materials and protects operational efficiency—while still complying with all legal requirements for transparency and accountability," board documents state.
Board Vice President Letticia Sever credited the district's library staff for staying up to date with the legislation and putting SCUCISD in an "enviable position."
"We've really kept ahead of it all, I think other districts have looked to us and we've been able to lend a hand in some places," Sever said.
Zooming out
According to previous reporting by Community Impact, SB 13 states that parents can see records of all materials their children check out from a school library, with allowance for a parent to submit a list of items that their child is not allowed to access.
The SCUCISD policy states that parents or guardians can submit a request to a campus principal to access the library or its online catalog.
If a library material is formally challenged, the board of trustees shall take action on it at the first open board meeting held 90 days after the challenge, according to the Texas Education Code.
The bill text states that districts must have a library collection development policy that prohibits the possession, acquisition and purchase of "harmful material," as well as other updates prohibiting library material "containing indecent content or profane content" and material referring someone to a website containing prohibited content.
According to Section 43.24 of the state's Penal Code, "harmful material" is defined as material with a "dominant theme" of sex and nudity, as well as material "patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors" and "utterly without redeeming social value for minors."
