The school year is back in full swing for students and educators, and under a new law, every district is required to establish policies to ensure school libraries have a process in place for handling challenges to books and other library materials. Those challenges have skyrocketed since the pandemic.
In 2024, 38% of the nationwide book challenges were in school libraries, and 5% were in schools themselves, according to the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Under the new Connecticut law, a school board has to adopt three policies: a collection, development and maintenance policy, a library display and program policy and a library material review policy.
The law, which also contains provisions for public libraries’ collection and review policies, passed after lawmakers folded the language into this year’s state budget. The language was similar to the Senate Bill considered by the Children’s Committee.
‘Think of all of the children in the community’
Ellen Paul, the executive director of Connecticut Library Consortium (CLC) estimated that about half of the state’s school districts have some degree of library policies, though some haven’t been updated since the '90s.
"I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of schools, and a lot of boards of education, that need to start doing work on this,” Paul said.
CLC and the Connecticut Association of School Librarians have been holding online information sessions since August for school library staff to learn the new law.
The policies must abide by certain parameters, such as following the state’s non-discrimination statutes. But the rules must be approved by the board of education in consultation with the superintendent, the director of curriculum and a librarian from the district.
“We are not prescribing a standard policy, because we know that what works in Norwich, might not work in Norwalk,” Paul said.
The law also states that a “school library media specialist is professionally trained to curate and develop a collection that provides students with access to the widest array of age-appropriate and grade-level-appropriate library and other educational material.”
The policies are to allow thoughtfulness to the reconsideration request, so materials are “not just being pulled off the shelf because one person doesn't want their child to read the book, that we think of all of the children in the community,” Paul said.
The law also states that school material reconsideration requests are only limited to “the parents and guardians of students and eligible students currently enrolled in the school or school district.”
Nationwide, only 16% of book challenges last year came from parents, the ALA report found. Much of the rest came from special interest groups, government officials and a board or administration.
Some opponents to the Connecticut bill said in public testimony they feared it would have a chilling factor on the ability to challenge books. The bill’s supporters emphasized creating a fair process to review material was vital to preserving the freedom to read.
“School libraries have always been spaces where students can explore the world and begin to understand themselves,” Val DiLorenzo, president of Connecticut Association of School Librarians, said in a joint statement with other library organizations after the bill’s passage.
“That doesn’t mean every book is right for every reader, but it does mean students deserve the chance to choose with guidance, not censorship.”
‘Decisions aren't being made in a back room’
Connecticut’s not the only New England state that’s codified “freedom to read” policies into its laws. Rhode Island passed a similar effort this year, and Vermont’s law, which passed last year, took effect this July.
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom said in Connecticut there were 29 title challenges in 2022, and 117 in 2023. Last year there were only 17, a downward trend that mirrored the national data. But the group said it is likely an undercount, and Paul echoed that sentiment.
“When you're relying on people to just self-report that, you're not going to get the full scope of the issue,” Paul said.
The ALA said that legislative restrictions in states, such as schools being required to limit or remove library materials with themes about race or racism, LGBTQ+ issues or more broadly containing “sexual content” has also likely led to the drop in documented challenges.
This year, New Hampshire’s legislature passed a school book bill largely along party lines that would have prohibited materials showing nudity or sexual content if it “lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors.” The measure would have also created a process for challenging library materials. The governor vetoed it.
Connecticut has not passed such laws regarding the content of library materials. But some state legislators unsuccessfully attempted this past legislative session to broadly ban sexual content in books. This included a bill that did not make it out of the education committee, and an amendment to a measure surrounding electronic book contracts for libraries.
Paul said she hopes that the new law can give reassurance to people that book challenges are handled with care, “being reviewed by people who live and work in the community, people who send their children to these schools, and that decisions aren't being made in a back room by one or two individuals.”
Connecticut Public’s Maysoon Khan contributed reporting.
