OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An Oklahoma lawmaker filed a bill on Tuesday that would require public school districts and charter schools to submit a list of available library materials each year to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Sen. Warren Hamilton (R-McCurtain) filed Senate Bill 19 on Tuesday. If passed, the bill would require the list of library materials to be submitted to OSDE each year by October 1 and prohibit schools from having inappropriate material accessible to students.
This bill comes after a legal battle last year between OSDE and Edmond Public Schools. The dispute started January 2024 when OSDE sent a letter to Edmond Public Schools, ordering the district to remove two books—"The Kite Runner" and "The Glass Castle"—from its school libraries, after saying the books "qualified as sexualized content."
The legal battle came to a close in June 2024 when the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the State Department of Education does not have authority to decide what books public schools can have in their libraries.
"We are grateful for today’s decision from the Oklahoma Supreme Court. We appreciate their willingness to take the case and their decision. Today’s decision protects our locally elected school board’s role in creating policies that determine how library materials are selected and reviewed," said Edmond Public Schools in a statement following ruling last year.
Under SB19, schools would also be required to enforce written policies for assessing library materials on their educational relevance and age-appropriateness, including managing and responding to any complaints towards books and other material in school libraries.
“Oklahoma students should be able to read and learn in a safe environment, free from exposure to explicit materials. Parents should also have peace of mind knowing that their children are not able to access inappropriate content while at school,” Hamilton said. “This bill ensures that parents and the State Department of Education can hold schools accountable for exposing children to inappropriate materials, while also putting parameters in place to ensure such content isn’t available in the first place.”
SB19 will be available for consideration during the 2025 legislative session, beginning February 3.
