Duval County adopts school policy for challenged books

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (FLV) – Duval County Public Schools adopted a school policy on how to handle challenged books and materials Tuesday. 

The move comes after Florida Republicans approved legislation making it easier for parents to challenge books in classrooms.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been outspokenly against pornographic and sexually inappropriate books in schools.

To align with state law, Duval policy requires that if any material is being challenged due to sexual conduct, the material must be removed within five school days after receiving the objection and remain unavailable to students until the objection is resolved.

During Tuesday’s school board meeting, Board Member Warren Jones asked if there is a difference between a book being “banned” and a book being restricted to a certain grade level.

Temporary Superintendent Dr. Dana Kriznar answered Jones’ question and said there is a difference and there are “all different kinds of categories” for challenged materials.

“Typically, when a book is challenged, and they consider the book, they rarely ban it. Typically they move it to a different grade band. And then when a student goes to access that book, when it’s scanned, you can see what grant grade band it’s appropriate for,” Kriznar said.

Jones said he wanted to “make sure the public understood” that “many books have not been banned, it’s just been designated for certain grade bands.”

Duval schools approved requirements for when people send in complaints and requests for the reevaluation of instructional materials.

The district requires complaints be easy to read and understandable, as well as easily accessible on the homepage of the district’s website. 

The objection form of challenged materials must include the district’s point of contact and contact information for submission. Another requirement is that the form will also contain the following information, as much as possible, or as provided by the Florida Department of Education:

• The title of the book, recording, film, or other item of instructional material under consideration.
• The name and address of author, publisher, or sponsor.
• Citation of the pages and specific passage or items in question.
• Identification of the complainant and contact information, a statement of his/her basis for criticizing or requesting of a reevaluation of the particular item.

When it comes to the procedures on handling the complaints and requests for reevaluation of materials, the chief officer, academic services or designee, and a committee appointed by the superintendent must evaluate the complaint or request.

The committee is required to be made up of at least one instructional staff member, one certified media specialist, one lay person and one parent. The meetings of the committee must be open to the public.

Florida legislation requires all school librarians and media specialists to be trained annually in order to assist them with selecting books that comply with state law requirements.

In accordance with Florida law, the Duval County School District has trained certified media specialists who select books being made available to students through the school library, classroom libraries and recommended or assigned grade-level reading lists.

The committee is required to notify the author, publisher or sponsor of the complaint of the materials to give them a chance to submit a report or to provide additional information. Parents will have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection.

Included in the revisions, is if a parent disagrees with the outcome made by the district school board on the objection of certain materials, the parent may request Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. to appoint a law officer, who will consider both sides of the issue and recommend a resolution to the state board of education within 30 days after the parents’ request.

A report must be submitted to the commissioner of education each year, showing each material the district received an objection for. Included in the district’s revised policy, this also includes each material that was not removed and the reason for not removing the material.