The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would increase regulation, administrative duties, and public awareness of school district library catalogs.

Senate Bill 13, written by State Senator Angela Paxton, states, “A parent is entitled to access to all written records of a school district concerning the parent’s child.” Paxton has amended the education code to include, “records relating to school library materials the child obtains from a school library.”

If passed, the bill would require school districts to notify parents or guardians what their child obtains from the library system. The bill states that parents and guardians must also be notified of this option for them. If so, then they would receive an email each time their child obtains material from the school library. Some worry the bill will create a huge administrative burden on librarians to notify parents that often.

Further in the bill, if passed, then the Texas State Library and Archives Commission would create library standards for the State School Board of Education that includes prohibiting a library to acquire or retain “harmful materials” and complies with the Children’s Internet Protection Act. The Children’s Internet Protection Act limits a child’s exposure to pornography and sexually explicit content on the internet.

The “harmful material” that the bill seeks to remove from school libraries is “material whose dominant theme taken as a whole: appeals to the prurient interest of a minor, in sex, nudity, or excretion; is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and is utterly without redeeming social value for minors” (Texas Penal Code 43.24).

School districts would, under the bill, establish a 5 person local library advisory council, being a majority of parents or guardians, to “assist the district in ensuring that local community values are reflected in each school library catalog in the district.” According to the bill, the “list of library materials proposed to be procured [must be] accessible for review by the public for at least 30 days before final approval.”

It also gives the school board options to have non-voting members added that are school faculty or members of the community. The bill also states how the school board and library advisory council will handle complaints made by parents or people in the school district.

“To have your professionalism questioned by a small vocal minority of individuals is really threatening, and librarians do not feel safe working in their schools and in their communities right now,” said Shirly Robinson, executive director for the Texas Library Association, in an article by Spectrum Local News.

“School librarians have raised concerns about some of the logistical obstacles it would create, such as the 30-day waiting period before ordering books,” wrote the Texas Tribune, “slowing down a process that can already take months and will leave schools vulnerable to not meeting recommended collection standards for their student bodies.”

The bill will now be handed to the Texas House of Representatives to debate and vote on it themselves.