Books available to students through the library are intended for voluntary use by students as they self-select independent reading materials. Books may also meet a curricular need for students, but library books are not the primary source of instruction. An instructional resource is an educational aid or material intended to be used by all students for instructional purposes (e.g., textbook, online material, video, media). The distinction between the two is legally significant. 

School Librarians are highly-trained and certified by the state of Texas in the selection of materials for children and young adults. Books are chosen based upon the needs of the district-adopted curriculum, personal interests of students, and recommendation by staff, students, and parents. Selection criteria includes:

• Support and enrich the curriculum and/or students’ personal interests and learning;
• Meet high standards in literary, artistic, and aesthetic quality; technical aspects; and physical format;
• Be appropriate for the subject area and for the age, emotional development, ability level, learning styles, and social, emotional, and intellectual development of the students for whom the materials are selected; 
• Incorporate accurate and authentic factual content from authoritative sources; 
• Earn favorable reviews in standard reviewing sources and/or favorable recommendations based on preview and examination of materials by professional personnel; 
• Exhibit a high degree of potential user appeal and interest; 
• Represent differing viewpoints on controversial issues; 
• Provide a global perspective and promote diversity by including materials by authors and illustrators of all cultures; 
• Include a variety of resources in physical and virtual formats including print and non-print such as electronic and multimedia (including subscription databases and other online products, e-books, educational games, and other forms of emerging technologies); 
• Demonstrate physical format, appearance, and durability suitable to their intended use; and
• Balance cost with need

School Librarians read and evaluate peer-reviewed resources from professional journals such as School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Review, and Publisher’s Weekly to determine if a book meets the criteria of at least two favorable reviews recommending for the age of children at their campus. The examples below demonstrate the content and nature of peer-reviewed resources and how they aid in the selection of books:

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Booklist starred (February 1, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 11))
Grades 5-8. Kids’ books about befriending somebody “different” could fill a library. But this debut novel rises to the top through its subtle shifting of focus to those who are “normal,” thereby throwing into doubt presumptions readers may have about any of the characters. Nominally, the story is about 10-year-old August, a homeschooled boy who is about to take the plunge into a private middle school. Even 27 operations later, Auggie’s face has what doctors call “anomolies”; Auggie himself calls it “my tiny, mushed-up face.” He is gentle and smart, but his mere physical presence sends the lives of a dozen people into a tailspin: his sister, his old friends, the new kids he meets, their parents, the school administrators—the list goes on and on. Palacio’s bold move is to leave Auggie’s first-person story to follow these increasingly tangential characters. This storytelling strategy is always fraught with peril because of how readers must refresh their interest level with each new section. However, much like Ilene Cooper’s similarly structured Angel in My Pocket (2011), Palacio’s novel feels not only effortless but downright graceful, and by the stand-up-and-cheer conclusion, readers will be doing just that, and feeling as if they are part of this troubled but ultimately warm-hearted community.

Kirkus Reviews starred (December 15, 2011)
After being homeschooled for years, Auggie Pullman is about to start fifth grade, but he's worried: How will he fit into middle-school life when he looks so different from everyone else? Auggie has had 27 surgeries to correct facial anomalies he was born with, but he still has a face that has earned him such cruel nicknames as Freak, Freddy Krueger, Gross-out and Lizard face. Though "his features look like they've been melted, like the drippings on a candle" and he's used to people averting their eyes when they see him, he's an engaging boy who feels pretty ordinary inside. He's smart, funny, kind and brave, but his father says that having Auggie attend Beecher Prep would be like sending "a lamb to the slaughter." Palacio divides the novel into eight parts, interspersing Auggie's first-person narrative with the voices of family members and classmates, wisely expanding the story beyond Auggie's viewpoint and demonstrating that Auggie's arrival at school doesn't test only him, it affects everyone in the community. Auggie may be finding his place in the world, but that world must find a way to make room for him, too. A memorable story of kindness, courage and wonder. (Fiction. 8-14)

A classroom library is a set of books that are housed in a teacher’s classroom. Books for the classroom are purchased in a variety of ways such as district funds, campus funds, PTA, teacher’s personal money, Amazon wishlist donations, Donors Choose, etc. Typically these books are available for students to read independently or use in the instructional setting.

The District has placed another layer of review at the administrative level before any book can be purchased while we analyze and revise our processes.

A parent of a District student, any employee, or any District resident may formally challenge an instructional resource used in the District’s educational program on the basis of appropriateness.

The school receiving a complaint about the appropriateness of an instructional resource shall try to resolve the matter informally using the following procedure:

1. The principal or designee shall explain the school’s selection process, the criteria for selection, and the qualifications of the professional staff who selected the questioned resource.
2. The principal or designee shall explain the intended educational purpose of the resource and any additional information regarding its use.
3. If appropriate, the principal or designee may offer a concerned parent an alternative instructional resource to be used by that parent’s child in place of the challenged resource.
4. If the complainant wishes to make a formal challenge, the principal or designee shall provide the complainant a copy of this policy and a form to request a formal reconsideration of the resource.

A complainant shall make any formal objection to an instructional resource on the form provided by the District and shall submit the completed and signed form to the principal or designee. Upon receipt of the form, the principal or designee shall appoint a reconsideration committee.

The reconsideration committee shall include at least one member of the instructional staff who has experience using the challenged resource with students or is familiar with the challenged resource’s content. Other members of the committee may include District-level staff, library staff, secondary-level students, parents, and any other appropriate individuals. It is now Keller ISD's' practice to invite at least two parents to each committee meeting. 

All members of the committee shall review the challenged resource in its entirety. As soon as reasonably possible, the committee shall meet and determine whether the challenged resource conforms to the principles of selection set out in this policy. The committee shall prepare a written report of its findings and provide copies to the principal, the Superintendent or designee, and the complainant. You can click here to review the checklist used to facilitate the committee meeting.

Yes. The complainant may appeal the decision of the reconsideration committee in accordance with appropriate complaint policies, starting with the appropriate administrator, in accordance with policies DGBA, FNG, or GF.

If we have enough copies of the book in the District, we collect copies of the book and distribute them to the committee members. If we do not have enough copies, we must use District funds to purchase copies of the book.

Yes. All committee members are required to read the book. 

Students’ First Amendment rights guide school districts on the removal of books from a school library. The committee must determine if the book is “pervasively vulgar.” To determine pervasiveness, the committee members must read the entire book.

Once a resource has been made available in a school library, removal of the resource implicates students’ First Amendment rights. While the school district has discretion on which books it brings into its library, once a book is in the library there are legal limits on what can be removed. 

According to the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1982 decision, the First Amendment rights of students may be “directly and sharply” implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of a school library. Bd. of Educ., Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982).

The Court, in that case, informed us that there is a meaningful difference between the curriculum conveyed in a compulsory setting and the school library, which is a place for “voluntary inquiry.” The Court made clear that state and local discretion may not be exercised in a way that violates students’ free speech rights by removing books for partisan or political reasons: “In brief, we hold that local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’” Pico, 457 U.S. at 872. 

Students’ First Amendment rights are implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of a school library. A school district cannot remove materials from a library for the purpose of denying students access to ideas with which the district disagrees. A district may remove materials because they are pervasively vulgar or based solely upon the educational suitability of the books in question. Bd. of Educ. v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982)

The committee decides if a book is educationally suitable or pervasively vulgar by working through a series of questions in the areas of appropriateness, content, review/evaluations, and purpose. When the book is non-fiction, the committee also considers the authenticity of the book. You can review the specific questions addressed by the committee in the committee checklist for reconsideration.

Book challenge committees only decide whether or not books currently on shelves may remain on shelves. No decision made by a book challenge committee further expands or approves use of the book or additional purchases of the book. Acquisition and use as part of the curriculum are controlled through separate processes, and those processes must still be followed no matter what the book challenge committee decides.

The integrity of the book challenge committee is of the utmost importance. We want individuals with various perspectives to participate and have an open discussion without fearing retribution from those who might disagree with opinions they express. Unfortunately, in our current climate, we have had too many instances of teachers, administrators, and parents being harassed on social media and in person simply because someone did not agree with their perspective. We do not want this fear to impact our ability to have individuals volunteer to participate in these reading committees, and so the challenge committee meetings will not be open to the public. Keller ISD is, however, committed to ensuring that parents feel involved in the process. Following a suggestion from our District Educational Improvement committee, Keller ISD added an additional parent position to the challenge committee meetings to provide parents with a greater voice in the process. 

That is correct. Effective April 13, administrators will no longer serve on the committee. Based on feedback we have received from the community, it was determined that committees will have equal parent/community member and staff participation.

While this was a policy in place for many years, there hasn’t been a need to form a committee in a long time. Once a committee became necessary, we acted quickly and have continuously improved our process based on feedback we have received from the community.

No. There is a new committee, composed of those eight positions, formed for each book that is challenged.

The facilitator will work with the committee while the committee has continued conversations. If, after a second vote, the committee is still deadlocked, the book will automatically be restricted in the current setting and only checked out with parent permission.