SB13

What SB13 changes

SB13 gives parents access to school library catalogs and checkout information, lets them restrict their own child’s borrowing, and creates district-wide procedures for purchases, donations and book challenges. It adds content restrictions and parent-majority advisory councils, but does not require every district to establish a council automatically. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025 and applies beginning with the 2025–26 school year. official history; final law.

A parent’s restriction and a district-wide challenge are different

Districts and open-enrollment charter schools must let parents inspect available library catalogs and submit a list of materials their own child may not check out or otherwise use outside the school library. Submission must be available through a physical/electronic form or an online portal. Schools using a learning-management system or online learning portal must give parents a record each time their child checks out or otherwise uses library material outside the library, showing title, author, genre and return date, as applicable. The act also adds library checkout records to parents’ access rights. final law, Sections 1 and 4, Education Code 33.023–.024.

A separate district challenge can be filed by a student’s parent or person standing in parental relation, a district employee or a district resident. The required state form must identify how the material violates library standards. Unlike a parent’s own-child list, a challenge blocks access by all district students until the district acts. If trustees remove a book, they must tell classroom teachers at the affected grade level to remove their classroom copies too. If trustees retain it, they need not act on another challenge during the following two years. final law, Section 33.027.

Councils, purchases and review

A district may establish a library advisory council. It must do so after a petition by parents of at least 10% of enrolled students or 50 parents, whichever is fewer, and must keep that council for at least three years. The council recommends; trustees make the decisions. It has at least five members, with each trustee appointing an equal number. A majority of voting members must be parents of district students who are not district employees, and one such parent chairs it. Nonvoting participants may include educators, counselors, administrators, business representatives and clergy. final law, Section 33.025.

Councils meet at least twice yearly and as needed. Meetings require 72-hour notice, minutes and audio or video recordings; records go to the district within 10 days and are posted online as soon as practicable, if the district has a website. Authorized book-review committees must also have at least five members, a nonemployee-parent majority and the same meeting safeguards. Districts without councils still must ensure that their addition/removal procedures comply with the library standards and the meeting, minutes, recording and posting requirements of Sections 33.025(g)–(h). final law, Sections 33.025 and 33.027.

Trustees must approve purchases and donations, normally after a public list has been available for at least 30 days, at their first open meeting on or after day 30. A council, if established, advises before that meeting. Donated books cannot be made available to students before the required grade-level approval. Exceptions cover replacement of damaged copies, extra copies already in the catalog, and titles previously approved for the same grade levels—but each exception requires the same International Standard Book Number, not merely the same series or similar title. final law, Section 33.026.

Challenges go to an existing council within five days; the council has 90 days from receipt to recommend action. Trustees act at the first open meeting after the district’s 90th day following receipt or, where applicable, after the council’s recommendation. Appeals go to the first open meeting after filing. This is not a simple promise of a final decision within 90 calendar days. Trustees must consider applicable council advice, grade/subject suitability, library standards and relevant expert reviews. final law, Section 33.027.

Content rules and important limits

New restrictions cover library material with “indecent” content—patently offensive portrayals of sexual or excretory organs or activities—or “profane” content, defined as grossly offensive language considered a public nuisance. They also cover materials directing a reader, including by link or QR code, to a website containing prohibited content. Standards extend to classroom libraries, online catalogs, mobile applications and other library catalogs students can access. The act retains the prohibition on removal based solely on ideas or the personal background of authors or characters. final law, Sections 2–3.

The definition of library material excludes instructional material and materials procured for the TexShare consortium. A separate safeguard says the law must not be construed to limit acquisition of instructional material, as defined by Education Code 31.002, necessary to teach or demonstrate knowledge of the state’s essential knowledge and skills. Existing “harmful material” law is a distinct test, not a synonym for any offensive passage. The council’s final removal-recommendation language ties local values/age appropriateness to harmful or indecent/profane material, rather than retaining the House committee’s separate local-values-only ground. final law, Sections 33.020–.021 and 33.025(d).

The reference to vendor-rated sexually explicit material was already in prior law; SB13 did not invent that rating scheme. A January 17, 2024 Fifth Circuit opinion upheld preliminary relief against the education commissioner over HB900’s vendor-rating system while explaining that the Chapter 33 library standards were not enjoined or at issue in that appeal. Full-court rehearing was denied April 16, 2024. Those older decisions are not a ruling on SB13 or proof that every retained statutory provision is currently enforceable.

The act directs the state library commission to adopt standards by April 1, 2026 and TEA to provide a model acquisition policy as soon as practicable after effectiveness. It separately directs districts to adopt acquisition policies before the first day of 2025–26, despite the recorded September 1 effective date; those are the text’s two dates, not evidence of an earlier effective date. It contains a broad severability clause and prevails over conflicting nonsubstantive code corrections from the same session. final law, Sections 5–11.