Email your school board trustees, or sign up to speak at your next school board meeting and tell them:

Please adopt the Library Materials EFB Local policy update- that does NOT establish a school library advisory council (SLAC). 

The Texas Association of School Boards (aka TASB) has developed two versions of the EFB Policy update, that both comply with Senate Bill 13- the school library book bill that was just signed into law following the 89th legislative session. While TASB has two legally compliant EFB policy options, they likely only sent your school board whichever version of the policy they asked for. 

The Law is Bad.

The law is bad, so neither version is awesome- but the version of the Library Materials EFB Local Policy that establishes a School Library Advisory Council is really concerning. 

The SLAC version of EFB Local Policy appears to assign the School Library Advisory Council- not librarians- the job of creating purchase request lists and proposing them to the school board.

It says "librarians and other professional staff shall assist the SLAC in developing the list of library material recommendations." Which differs from the law that states, "the policy must require the board to approve all library materials that have been donated to or that are to be procured by a school library in the district, with the advice and recommendations of the district's SLAC." 

The difference between the policy and the law is subtle (and likely unintentional), but we fear politically appointed SLAC volunteers will exploit the authority the EFB Local Policy (SLAC version) seems to bestow upon the committee to "develop" the list of library materials, and could end up cutting school librarians out of the acquisitions and purchase request process all together. 

School Library Advisory Councils are OPTIONAL under Senate Bill 13.

Remember- under Senate Bill 13, school library advisory councils are optional- unless 50 parents- or 10% of parents (whichever is fewer) petition to start a SLAC. Then the district has to establish one.

Otherwise your district can continue to operate by allowing librarians to lead the collection development, catalog management and reconsideration process- with parent & community input, and board oversight. 

Importantly, petitioners are not automatically appointed to the committee. The board still gets to choose who is appointed to the SLAC, regardless of when or how it is formed.

If your district goes the School Library Advisory Council route- Senate Bill 13 does not give the SLACs the power to curate purchase lists, or to select materials for consideration by the board. Those responsibilities can still remain with librarians, but your local policy needs to make that really clear. So at the very least, make sure your board revises the policy they received to clarify that it is the librarian's responsibility to propose lists of library materials to the SLAC, and not the other way around. 

The bill has passed- so we can’t stop it. But we can try to mitigate, minimize, and document the fall out.

So Again- Please Reach Out to Your School Board Trustees. Now. 

Ask them to hold off on establishing a school library advisory committee, and adopt the “no-SLAC” EFB policy update. 

If they establish, or have already established a School Library Advisory Committee, now would be the time to ask your trustees to appoint you to serve on the committee. 

Senate Bill 13 takes effect September 1, so boards are voting on these policies through August. 

Let us know how it goes, and let us know how we can help. 

We are Texas parents fighting to make a difference in our state. 

If you value our advocacy, and these kinds of calls to action, please consider supporting our work, so we can keep doing it with minimal financial burden. 

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You can read the policy shared by Coppell ISD on their school board meeting agenda item VII.G.I EFB(L)-SLAC here.

You can read the policy shared by Grand Prairie ISD in their school board meeting agenda Item 7 EFB(L)- ALT here.