Enacts the "freedom to read act"; requires the commissioner of education and school library systems to develop policies to ensure that school libraries and library staff are empowered to curate and develop collections that provide students with access to the widest array of developmentally appropriate materials available.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7777
SPONSOR: Simone TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the "freedom
to read act"
PURPOSE:
To ensure school libraries and libraries are able to offer a wide array
of age-appropriate materials to students.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Adds a new subdivision to Article 2 Section 13 of the Education Law to
ensure school libraries and librarians are able to provide students with
a wide array of age-appropriate materials in schools.
JUSTIFICATION:
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not
love breathing."
This quote from Scout, .the young heroine of. Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird, sums up the way censorship almost inevitably backfires.
Banning books makes people take them more seriously. In the Soviet
Union, people went to extreme lengths to gain access to both Russian and
foreign literature that was forbidden by the government, with the result
that forbidden writers gained status and reached many more readers than
they might otherwise have done.
The current wave of efforts around the country to ban books from
libraries and classrooms focuses on books that help young people under-
stand our society, our history, and personal identity from a range of
perspectives. However, there is ample research to show that children are
more excited, and therefore more likely, to read books that feature
characters with whom they can identify. Moreover, "protecting" children
from negative information or harsh realities about issues like the
history of slavery or injustice serves to make them less resilient and
less vigilant about preventing such outcomes in the future.
In a diverse state like New York, it is critical that we ensure that
students have access to a broad range of materials available to them to
let them pursue a love of learning and reading that can transport them
to the distant past, to imagined futures, or into the far reaches of our
galaxy. By ensuring that students have access to many perspectives, they
have the option to enrich their minds and broaden their perspectives.
Whether they embrace or reject those perspectives, the opportunity to
explore challenging ideas is valuable to students' development as lear-
ners, as community members, and as citizens.
Democratic self-government depends on a free exchange of ideas and
information, and our schools must continue to ensure that ideas and
information are available for students to embrace or reject in line with
their values and those they learn from their families and communities.
This bill helps to protect the freedom to read by ensuring that school
boards will continue to provide the broadest range of access to age-ap-
propriate materials in school libraries. The Dignity for All Students
Act, as it now stands, prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bully-
ing in schools. This bill amends DASA by adding a guarantee of access to
diverse reading materials.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024 - S.6350-8 (May) / A.6873-8 (O'Donnell)
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
