How parents, community can challenge books in NC school libraries and curriculum
Most North Carolina school districts have a process parents can use to try to have books removed from their child’s school library or the school curriculum.
The challenge process varies by school district in North Carolina. But book challenges are on the rise with both formal requests to remove books and speakers attending school board meetings reading excerpts of books they say are inappropriate for students to view.
Wake County’s policy says books can be challenged if they’re “educationally unsuitable, pervasively vulgar, or inappropriate to the age, maturity, or grade level of the students.” It does not define “pervasively vulgar.”
The policy says challenges at individual schools must be made by families of children who attend those schools. Challenges are heard by a committee formed by the principal. Parents can appeal decisions made by the school committee to the district’s Central Instructional Materials Committee. This committee would also hear challenges involving materials used at the district level. The district committee’s decision can be appealed to the school board.
Procedures for challenging books could become standardized statewide.
A bill passed by the state House recently would require school districts to form community library advisory committees to review book challenges. Books could be removed if they include “descriptions or visual depictions of sexual activity or (are) pervasively vulgar.”
The legislation would allow parents and non-parents to file book challenges and lawsuits against school districts seeking damages of $5,000 per violation.
What to know about book challenges in North Carolina
For more background, here are recent news stories about the debate over books and possible changes:
- Wake school board approves Freedom to Read grants. Critics say they promote porn.
- NC House passes bill banning books with sexual activity from school libraries
- ‘Demonic’ or satire? Wake rejects mom’s request to ban book from elementary school.
- These are the 20 books that Moms for Liberty sought to remove from Wake school libraries
- We read these books that some parents say shouldn’t be in school libraries. What we found
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "How parents, community can challenge books in NC school libraries and curriculum."
