New North Carolina law mandates statewide book challenge process

The fight over school books in public schools is entering a new chapter in North Carolina after lawmakers tucked a new statewide process for challenging books and other instructional materials into the state budget.

The new state law requires every public school district to create an 11-member Community Media Advisory Committee made up of three principals, three teachers, three school library media coordinators and two parents.

Anyone can file a written challenge claiming a book is obscene or inappropriate for a student’s age or maturity level, or that classroom materials are not aligned with the state’s curriculum.

“I would say the book challenges are still one of the top three concerns in libraries at any level,” said Laurie Monroe, a middle school librarian and president of the North Carolina School Library Media Association.

Becky Lew-Hobbs, chair of Moms for Liberty Wake County, said the new law will create a more uniform process for handling book challenges across North Carolina.

“This definitely will give some consistencies amongst the school systems across North Carolina,” she said. “The schools will have to be a little more transparent in what they are specifically approving or declining to be in our school systems.”

Once a written challenge is submitted, the committee must hold a hearing within two weeks and then make a recommendation to the school board, which would have the final say.

Monroe said that the timeline is simply not practical.

“It feels like a really fast turnaround to get those people together, to get them having read the book and to get them through the process,” she said.

Monroe also questioned whether the law is even needed, saying it creates a cumbersome process that many districts already have.

“This is redundancy; Districts and schools already have this in place,” she said. “It feels like an extra barrier. Is it really any different than what’s already there? You’re just asking more principals and teachers and librarians to be involved at the expense of time.”

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction said most school districts already have similar policies for resolving book challenges, and they are helping districts align those policies with the new law.

Wake County Public Schools, for example, forms a new review committee every time someone challenges a book or other material. That committee, not the school board, makes the final decision. Under the new law, districts would instead have one standing advisory committee that would make recommendations to the school board.

“We are aware of the legislation included in the budget that refines parent access to library books and the challenge process to instructional and supplemental materials. We are currently reviewing Policy 3210 – Parental Inspection of and Objection to Instructional Materials to identify if any revisions will need to be made,” the school district said in a statement to CBS 17.

Lew-Hobbs said while she supports the new law, she worries that a one-size-fits-all approach could create bottlenecks in larger districts.

“Wake County has over 160,000 students,” she said. “So I’m concerned that one review committee could get a backlog, whereas a smaller school system may only have a thousand students, that could just be very overwhelming resource-wise to that school system”