Dive Brief:
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Florida districts could charge a $100-per-item fee to parents and residents who challenge six or more books or curricular materials a year, under a bipartisan state bill introduced this month. Districts, however, would have to refund the processing fee if the challenge succeeded.
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The proposal advanced out of a state legislative subcommittee last week by a 16-0 vote, with 5 Democrats and 11 Republicans sending it to the full Education and Employment Committee. If enacted, the measure would take effect in July.
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The bill, HB 7025, is among the first of its kind seeking to curb challenges to instructional material after Republican-backed state curriculum restrictions led to a surge in such requests. In fiscal year 2022-23, Florida saw 1,218 objections resulting in the removal of 386 books, according to a Jan. 18 analysis by the state House.
Dive Insight:
Florida's proposed legislation limiting the number of books that parents and residents could challenge for free comes as curriculum restrictions nationwide have brought thousands of requests leading to the removal of classroom materials.
“I’m happy that we are digging in and trying to remove reading material that is inappropriate for our children,” state Rep. Dana Trabulsy, a Republican sponsoring the legislation, told Politico. “But I think [book challengers] really need to be respectful of the amount of books that they are pouring into schools at one time.”
According to PEN America, which advocates for free speech and is tracking the issue, there were 3,362 instances of book bans in public school classrooms and libraries nationwide between July 2022 to June 2023. These bans removed student access to 1,557 unique book titles, the organization reported.
In many cases, multiple school and library books have been taken off shelves due to the requests of only a handful of people.
For example, one Texas district received requests from about 10 people to reconsider 120 books within the span of two months in 2022 from a list compiled by right-leaning group Moms For Liberty. Such lists are sometimes copied and pasted — with typos — from one complaint against a district to the next, something PEN America refers to as "copycat bans."
Florida, in addition to Texas, has been on the forefront of the so-called parental rights movement leading to such book removal efforts.
According to the Florida House report, a majority of the state's 1,218 objections last fiscal year came from two school districts: Clay and Escambia. Clay County District Schools had 489 complaints that led to the district removing 177 book titles, and Escambia County Public Schools reported 215 complaints that removed nine book titles.
The removal process, instituted through recently passed state curriculum laws, comes with procedural and reporting responsibilities for school districts. Beginning in June 2023, districts have been required to submit to the state a report identifying all materials — including the relevant grade level and course — for which the district received an objection, as well as the objection's outcome.
At the same time, a number of districts have faced lawsuits against their efforts to comply with new curriculum state laws.
Escambia County Public Schools, which received the second-highest number of objections from parents and residents in the state, is facing one such high-profile lawsuit. In May, publishing giant Penguin Random House, PEN America, authors and parents sued the district and its school board under the First and 14th Amendments.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Kent Wetherell refused to dismiss the case's First Amendment claims after a request from the district, allowing the lawsuit to proceed to trial. In his Jan. 12 order denying the defendants' motion to dismiss, Wetherell said he was unconvinced by the school district's claims that school libraries are not subject to the First Amendment due to "government speech."
First Amendment lawyer Lynn Oberlander, who is representing the plaintiffs against Escambia County Public Schools, said in a statement following the court order that she plans to move forward with the case.
Many other similar cases are working their way through lower courts, and some have seen developments as of late.
In Iowa, two lawsuits have cropped up questioning the state curriculum restrictions' impact on LGBTQ+ youth and on schools. Penguin Random House and bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and John Green joined one of those two lawsuits against the state.
Those two lawsuits led to a preliminary injunction against part of the sweeping Iowa law just prior to its Jan. 1 implementation date.
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