The New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) is deeply concerned about a newly introduced policy by the Readington Township Board of Education that risks undermining both the professional judgment of school librarians and the protections guaranteed under New Jersey’s Freedom to Read law.
At its January 20 meeting, the Readington Board of Education introduced Policy and Regulation 2535, which would require librarians to flag and escalate the purchase of materials that may contain “sensitive content” for review by a panel, with the possibility of further review by a Board committee.
While framed as a procedural safeguard, this policy risks creating pre-publication review, chilling collection development, and inserting Board involvement into professional decisions that state law clearly places in the hands of trained educators and librarians.
New Jersey’s Freedom to Read law was enacted to protect students’ access to diverse, educational, and age-appropriate materials and affirm the professional authority of licensed school librarians. This law is intended to prevent censorship and ensure challenges to materials follow clear, transparent, and lawful processes. The school board must follow the law when writing its policies, not disguise censorship with “prior review” or vague content restrictions
Policies that require materials to be flagged or reviewed before they are even purchased, especially without clear definitions or guardrails, run counter to both the intent and implementation of that law.
We are asking community members, parents, educators, and residents to respectfully urge the Readington Board of Education to align Policy and Regulation 2535 with New Jersey’s Freedom to Read law. This will preserve librarians’ professional authority in collection development and avoid creating de facto censorship or prior restraint
Please make your voice heard for Readington Township Public School students and keep the Board focused on governance, not book-by-book decisions.
Please use this form to email the Readington Board of Education and ask them to follow both the letter and the spirit of the law.
EveryLibrary supports this New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) Rapid Response Campaign on SaveSchoolLibrarians.org
