During the General Assembly’s sprint to finish work on policy bills by June 26, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday overhauled and approved H805: Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors to add religious objections to instruction and create a process for parents to prevent their child’s access to certain school library books.

The revised bill was amended to require local school boards to adopt policies allowing students to be excused from “specific classroom discussion, activities or assigned readings” by citing a religious objection. If a student is granted an excuse for this purpose, the school is required to provide an alternative activity aligned with the standard course of study.

Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) stated that the bill could allow a parent who does not believe in evolution for religious reasons to opt their children out of assignments. But Sen. Buck Newton (R-Wilson), who is leading the bill’s changes, said he was confident schools will be able to accommodate parents with religious objections.

H805 as amended also allows parents to identify what school library books their children will not be allowed to borrow. Local boards of education would be required to provide ongoing public access through a searchable web-based catalog to the titles of any library books available at each school. Each school would be required to display its catalog on the homepage of the website.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) noted that the bill does not have any funding for school districts to create the catalog and is an unfunded mandate.

H805 was approved by the Rules and Operations Committee of the Senate today and will be on the Senate floor next week. If approved by the Senate chamber, the bill would then return to the House for concurrence with the Senate changes. Please communicate first with your Senators and then with your House members to share any concerns with the requirements outlined in this bill.