After several hours of scanning done by teachers and volunteers, classroom library lists are posted on Hamilton County schools’ websites.
A new Tennessee law requires all public schools to maintain and publish a list of materials in school libraries and classrooms. To comply, Hamilton County teachers spent the majority of August using a mobile app called Booksource to scan each book into an online catalog.
The law, titled the Age-Appropriate Materials Act of 2022, is an effort to “ensure that the materials are appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials, and that the materials are suitable for, and consistent with, the educational mission of the school.” The law also prohibits students from reading the materials until they are cataloged on the website.
The lists will be maintained throughout the year, District Chief Communications Officer Steve Doremus said in an email.
The location of the book lists differs from site to site and may require a bit of searching. Depending on the school, some are posted to the teachers’ individual websites, while others, like Battle Academy, have a main navigation tab at the top of the page.
East Brainerd Elementary kindergarten teacher Melissa Doyle’s has catalogued her books in a spreadsheet.
In July, the Hamilton County Schools Board of Education updated its policies on the selection and reconsideration of instructional materials to reflect changes in the new law, Doremus said.
The policy now requires administrators to consider “the extent to which the content may be considered offensive to contemporary, graphic depictions of violence or sex, etc,” it states.
“Provided, however, that otherwise offensive materials may still be used if their relative literary value, as measured in part by the criteria above, outweighs the offensiveness of the content,” the policy states.
Donated materials are now also subject to review and selection by administrators.
And though the lists are available to the public, not everyone can submit a formal complaint if they find a book to be inappropriate.
The Board of Education passed a revised review process in July that allows only parents and guardians whose children attend Hamilton County Schools to make formal book complaints.
The procedure is as follows:
1. A complainant must submit a Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials form, which the school principal and teacher will review for validity.
2. Upon receipt of the completed form, the principal will request a review of the challenged material within 20 working days. The principal will form an ad hoc materials review committee composed of the executive director or director of teaching, the president of the school’s parent-teacher association or other parent representative appointed by the principal, a principal of a county school serving the same grade levels and in the same learning community as the school in which the complaint was made, and a teacher in a county school serving the same grade levels and in the same learning community as the school in which the complaint was made.
Committee members will determine whether the material aligns with the selection criteria and will issue their decision to the school’s principal. The complainant then has 15 days to appeal the committee’s decision to the Board of Education, which can sustain the review committee or grant a new hearing, the policy states.
Contact Carmen Nesbitt at cnesbitt@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327. Follow her on Twitter @carmen_nesbitt.