Duplicative, anti-local control bill calls for school boards to ignore copyright laws

Despite concerns expressed in testimony by school systems, administrative professional organizations, and GLMA, the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee passed a new substitute version of SB 226 out of committee on March 22, 2021. Changes in this substitute call for a principal or designee to review challenged materials and determine whether they meet the standard of “harmful to minors” within 7 working days. In this version, rather than moving to the superintendent on appeal, the parent or guardian would appeal directly to the school board.  If the school board determines the material to be not “harmful to minors,” this version requires the school board to post the challenged materials (images and/or text) publicly on their website within 15 days to remain there for 48 months. 

Our concerns remain that this is negating the tenet of local control whenever reasonable.  Results of a survey sent on Tuesday, March 16th by the Georgia DOE were shared on Friday, March 19th, and 107 responses from 75 school districts showed that, while some schools reported not having local policies for selection and reconsideration, all districts did have such policies. As we shared with the committee on Monday, this seems an opportunity for professional development to help schools craft policies, especially as we now have at least a part-time dedicated library media liaison at GaDOE, rather than new law. 

Vote No on SB 226

Please contact your representative and senator through this Engage platform to ask them to vote NO on SB 226. After you submit your name, address, and contact information, you will see the names of your senator and representative and a template email which we encourage you to personalize to share your status as a media specialist in Georgia and your school's and district's experiences. This bill will create a new law for a process which school districts across the state now implement under a Georgia DOE rule and with which very few problems have been reported. It also sets state-level mandates rather than afford the current local control of parties involved, time frame limits for responses, and appeals processes.

Many districts have selection and reconsideration policies which stress that library media materials should present all points of view concerning international, national and local issues. While holding firm that no parent or group of parents may determine the reading matter for students other than their own children, districts do honor the right of an individual parent or guardian to request that his/her child not be required to read, view or listen to any specific instructional material. This bill would allow parents to restrict access to materials for children other than their own.