Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Materials topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Parents, advocates urge Utah State Board to push statewide review, removals of 'sensitive' school materials
Summary
Dozens of public commenters at the Utah State Board of Education’s June meeting urged the board to issue clear guidance for districts on removing materials they say violate HB 29 and to create a statewide removals list; speakers cited delays and inconsistent district responses.
Dozens of parents and advocacy group representatives used the Utah State Board of Education’s June public-comment period to press the board for clearer, faster state-level action on so-called sensitive school materials and the process for removing them.
Speakers including Brooke Stevens, Megan (Zoom), Lillia Allen and Sharon Gilbert described what they said are explicit or inappropriate passages in books available in some district libraries and urged the board to use the guidance it plans to publish under HB 29 to create a statewide review and removal process. Megan and other commenters urged the board to provide “detailed information” and a centralized database so districts that already removed material could avoid repeating costly local challenges.
The commenters described wide variation across districts. Megan said Park City had 15 challenges in January 2023 but had finalized only four outcomes; other speakers said Granite, Davis, Canyons and Washington County publish their outcomes. Several asked the board to define objective versus subjective criteria, and to explain how the board would handle statewide removals and appeals.
Board members acknowledged that the board is preparing guidance and legal staff have been involved; staff and members said HB 29 includes a review process that interacts with existing code. Several board members urged staff to make guidance specific and implementable for smaller districts, where resource constraints can delay local reviews.
The board did not take a final vote on statewide removals at the meeting. Board leadership and staff said they would continue drafting the guidance and that some questions may require legal or legislative follow-up; the board later asked staff to analyze federal Title IX rules and other compliance issues in a separate motion.
The public-comment period featured a wide mix of testimony, from parents who said they were “heartbroken” at what they had read in school materials to advocates who urged a statewide retroactive removals process so smaller LEAs would not have to duplicate work. Several commenters asked the board to explicitly note the statutory definitions and thresholds that govern what may be removed under state law.
Next steps: board staff said the guidance drafting will continue and that the board will provide additional clarification about how statewide removals and board-level appeals will be handled.
