The Colorado General Assembly is considering Senate Bill 25-063, which aims to standardize policies regarding library resources in public schools. Key provisions of the bill include:
Policy Development: Mandates that local school boards and the state charter school institute board establish written policies for:
Acquisition, retention, display, and use of library resources.
Use of public school library facilities.
Reconsideration processes for library resources.
Removal of Library Resources: Specifies that a public school library may remove a resource from its permanent collection only after:
Reviewing the resource in accordance with the established reconsideration policy.
Ensuring the policy complies with the standards set forth in the bill.
Excludes routine collection maintenance from this requirement.
Transparency and Public Access: Requires:
The reconsideration process to be publicly accessible.
Final determinations on challenged resources to be made public.
Requests for reconsideration to be treated as open records under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Protection for Library Staff: Ensures that librarians, media specialists, employees, contractors, and volunteers are protected from:
Termination, demotion, discipline, or retaliation for refusing to remove a library resource before the required review.
Making decisions about displays, acquisitions, or programming in good faith compliance with established standards.
This legislation aims to promote transparency, consistency, and fairness in managing public school library resources across Colorado.
Summary
The bill requires the local board of education of a school district
(local school board) and the state charter school institute board (institute board) to establish written policies for the acquisition, retention, display, and use of library resources and for the use of a public school library facility. In addition, if any public school reconsiders library resources, the local school board or institute board, as applicable, is required to establish a written policy for the reconsideration of a library resource. A local school board and the institute board are required to comply with specified standards in establishing a policy for the acquisition, retention, display, use, and reconsideration of library resources and for the use of public school library facilities.
The bill specifies that a public school library may remove a library
resource from its permanent collection only if the library resource has been reviewed in accordance with an established policy for the reconsideration of library resources that complies with the standards established in the bill. If a local school board or the institute board has not established a policy for the reconsideration of library resources or has a policy for the reconsideration of library resources that does not comply with the standards established in the bill, a public school governed by the local school board or an institute charter school, as applicable, may not remove a library resource from its permanent collection. These requirements do not apply to routine collection maintenance and deaccession in accordance with a public school library's established collection maintenance policy. A local school board or the institute board is required to make its process for the reconsideration of library materials available to the public.
After reviewing a library resource that is the subject of a request
for reconsideration and making a final determination regarding the library resource, the local school board or institute board, as applicable, is required to make the determination available to the public.
The bill specifies that a request for reconsideration of a library
resource in a public school library is an open record under the Colorado Open Records Act.
The bill specifies that a librarian, media specialist, other employee,
contractor, or volunteer (employee) at a public school library is not subject to termination, demotion, discipline, or retaliation for refusing to remove a library resource before it has been reviewed in accordance with the school district's or state charter school institute's policy for the reconsideration of library resources or for making displays, acquisitions, or programming decisions that the employee believes, in good faith, are in accordance with the standards established in the bill.
