Success Story: Keller ISD (Keller, TX)

Parents raised concerns and showed administration, board members, the Texas Education Agency and local government officials excerpt from books that they believed were outside of community standards for minors. Parents also became very involved in the local school board elections in the Spring of 2022, ensuring they elected candidates that supported age-appropriate content in libraries.

TEA acknowledged in a letter from Mike Morath to the governor that books with inappropriate and potentially harmful content were available via school libraries.  TEA created a model policy for districts to adopt and also acknowledged that 

The Keller ISD School Board adopted a new policy, EFLOCAL, that is in line with TEA's recommended policy and outlines what content is prohibited. 

 INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES - LIBRARY MATERIALS (tasb.org)  It also points to an exhibit (talked about below) that outlines specific content that is considered prohibitied.

Keller ISD administration developed the Library Content Guidelines that are used to determine what content, per grade level, is considered prohibited content.  Click on below link for full details of the exhibit including definitions of the terms.

 INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES - LIBRARY MATERIALS (tasb.org) 

The below link is a tool to see how the guidelines could be applied to some common school library books to determine their appropriate setting based on this districts Content Guidelines.

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rIiEABIkozL1x18naGSva-Ntehxsi58__ycu8o8247Q/edit?usp=sharing 

Keller ISD has successfully utilized the Library Content Guidelines exhibit to deselect books with content in violation of the content guidelines. These guidelines are also used to drive purchase options.