School districts need to be ready for challenges to books and curriculum, group says

Across the country, there's been a rise in calls to remove books from schools over concerns about indoctrinating students with "woke" ideology. Even in blue New York, dozens of school districts have faced challenges to books in school libraries and certain classroom lessons, particularly those dealing with race and gender.

But how should districts handle such challenges?

The New York Civil Liberties Union is offering New York's school districts a step-by-step guide on what to do.

The organization created model policies for districts while using Carmel Central School District as an example, urging it to strengthen its policies after a challenge last year to the district having the book "Gender Queer: A Memoir" — the most challenged book in the country in 2022 — in its high school library. The superintendent and school board decided to keep the book in the library, but continued to get pushback from a "small but vocal group of conservative activists," said a letter from NYCLU to the school board last month.

Carmel was one of several districts in the Lower Hudson Valley to see such challenges.

Nineteen districts in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess saw challenges to 23 books during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, according to Freedom of Information requests made by The Journal News/lohud. The most challenged book was "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe, which was challenged in six districts, with four deciding not to change the book's status. The Wappingers school district removed the book from its high school library, and the Pine Plains district said the book, while not in its library, should not be available to students.

Most challenges to "Gender Queer" have focused on its graphic sexual images.

"We're at a moment where public schools are under threat," said Emma Hulse, NYCLU's Skadden Fellow in its Education Policy Center.

Hulse created three model policies, expanding on the New York State School Boards Association's sample policies for selecting library materials and addressing challenges to books and curriculum.

The NYCLU's general stance is that books and materials should not be removed unless they don't serve an educational purpose in line with a district's curriculum.

Many districts in the Lower Hudson Valley have their own policies for handling challenges to books and curriculum, and some already do much of what the NYCLU suggests, including Carmel. But NYCLU urged Carmel to further strengthen its policies around making sure material isn't removed until a decision is made, providing a clear timeline for reviewing challenges, protecting the professional judgment of staff and greater transparency around the process.

Carmel school board President Dawn Dall declined to comment on the NYCLU's policies or its letter to the board.

Protecting students' rights

The New York Librarian Association said the NYCLU's suggested policies are aligned with best practices and recommendations offered by the American Library Association. School libraries are vital to aiding curriculum and providing materials for students with diverse interests, the group said in a statement.

"Attempts to remove or restrict library materials threaten students’ First Amendment rights and the ability of our educational institutions to develop an informed citizenry," it said. "Policies such as this help reinforce democratic values and ensure that education professionals and students are supported within their organizations."

Strong policies also help educators respond during emotionally charged situations, the NY Library Association said.

Jay Worona, deputy executive director and general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association, called having policies around such challenges "essential" for school districts at this time.

"It's very important that we make the public aware of what constitutes not only how curriculum and library materials are chosen, but how it would be altered or removed," Worona said.

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The New York School Boards Association also has sample policies for challenges to books, curriculum and library materials. But Worona said none should be adopted as they are. Rather, districts should adapt them to their needs.

Asked if the state Department of Education had any guidance for school districts on how to handle challenges to books and curriculum, a spokesperson said decisions around curriculum and materials are up to each district.

Here are some highlights from NYCLU's model policies.

How to respond to challenges

NYCLU's model policies around complaints about curriculum and instructional materials and library materials say districts should do the following:

• The superintendent should establish a committee at the beginning of the school year that will investigate any challenges and make a recommendation to the school board. The committees should include: administrators, librarians, teachers, a reading or content specialist, parents and high school students.

• The building principal and any teacher involved should have an informal meeting with the complainant within two weeks of receiving a complaint. The goal is for the complainant to explain their objection and for the principal and teacher to explain how curriculum is created and the educational value of the material being challenged.

• If the complainant wants to move forward with their challenge, they should file their request on a special form with the superintendent within 10 business days of the informal meeting.

• The material being challenged should remain available until the board makes a decision on it.

• The public should have 30 days from the filing of the complaint to submit comments about the challenged material.

• The committee should set a formal meeting for reconsideration within 30 days of receiving the form.

• The committee should give its recommendation to the school board.

• If a decision is made to keep the challenged material, no challenges to the same material should be considered for five years.

The material "is entitled to a strong presumption of reasonableness," the model policy says, and the only reason material should be removed is if its inclusion doesn't serve an educational purpose according to the district's curriculum guidelines.

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"The history and principles of 'academic freedom' teach that decisions regarding the content of educational materials should, in most cases, be left to professional educators," the policy says. School boards and state officials should not ban materials to narrow viewpoints "in ways that are incompatible with the commitment to pluralism and diversity," it says.

NYCLU's policy notes that library materials should take into consideration students' "varied interests, abilities, languages spoken and read, and maturity levels" and should reflect the diversity of the student body and country.

"Certified school librarians use their professional expertise to research, evaluate, and select high-quality materials, review academic journals, and input from students and teachers, as well as New York State education curriculum, to develop the school library collection," said the New York Library Association's Section of School Librarians said in an email. "These collections are carefully curated to support district goals and curricula and meet the various needs of the school community."

Read the NYCLU's full model policies here:

Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NYCLU outlines policy for schools on challenges to books and materials