The Texas Senate Committee on Education took up its 2026 interim charge of monitoring the implementation of Senate Bill (SB) 13, which was passed last year and aimed to target sexually explicit materials in public schools and ensure that “parents are the primary decision makers regarding a student’s access to library material.”
Under the law, schools must provide a public catalog of their materials, give parents access to their children’s checkout records, and allow parents to submit book lists restricting their child’s access. School district boards of trustees must establish local library advisory councils to “ensure that local community values are reflected” in libraries.
State Sen. Brent Hagenbuch (R-Denton) brought up Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s August 20 press conference, where Patrick announced he would push legislation during the 90th Legislative Session to knock non-compliant school districts down a letter grade in the Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability ratings, as well as imposing “potential budget issues.”
Patrick was joined at the August event by book activist Bonnie Wallace, who was also at the hearing this week, to address “dirty, filthy, and vulgar” books in school libraries.
“[Wallace] says that only 20 percent of schools have removed the books,” Hagenbuch told TEA Deputy Commissioner of School Programs Shannon Trejo at the committee hearing. “So 80 percent have done nothing, some even after being told what’s on the shelves. What are your thoughts about that?”
Trejo replied that the TEA does not have access to how many books have been removed at the local level, adding, “That is definitely something that legislation could take up to determine how to create greater insight.”
Hagenbuch continued to question the policy’s language around procedures for “acquisition” of “new materials.” He said that his school districts believe they are in compliance with the law because of processes put in place and parental involvement.
When questioned about all of the existing books in school libraries, Hagenbuch said his district said this would be very difficult.
“There’s no effort to address that, from my understanding. So I think part of the issue is that the law really doesn’t address the books that are on the shelves. Am I accurate in that?” he asked Trejo, who confirmed it.
“Districts have expressed concerns about the heavy lift of the policy as it stands,” Trejo added, describing a complete inventory of library materials as “a lot of work.”
TEA General Counsel Von Byer confirmed that the Texas Education Code prohibits the “possession, acquisition, and purchase” of the books in question.
Public testimony referenced Lubbock Independent School District (LISD), where the library advisory committee opted to keep multiple challenged books. State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) spoke to the district’s board of trustees about the books’ presence on school shelves.
“The intent of the Legislature is to get rid of effectively obscene, vulgar [material],” Perry said. “If this book made the cut to go back after their process review, then I think the process that LISD has set up misses the legislative intent.”
One parent testifying before the Senate Education Committee said that Perry “urged the district to bypass those processes by using automated searches for derogatory lists of words that are unacceptable.”
“If SB 13 is not enough, what exactly will be?” she asked, arguing that the bill doesn’t empower parents, but rather “censors” to control high school students’ reading choices.
“With local control, why do you have smut in the library? Why do you have filth in the books? Why was that a positive choice that’s made locally?” retorted Committee Chair Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), who said she is “shocked” at the content of certain books.
Campbell continued, saying that she believes local control is a good thing until it becomes “loco control,” adding that sometimes the state government has to step in with “guardrails and take a look.”
The chairwoman also noted that students who used language present in certain books would be disciplined for speaking that way in the classroom.
State Sen. José Menendez (D-San Antonio) expressed concern that the law would target classic books with explicit themes, such as “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger.
Patrick and Wallace have come under fire for promoting an online list that includes the memoir “Night” by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, which is part of the state’s required reading list for Texas middle school students.
“Shouldn’t we leave this decision up to the parents?” Menendez asked.
State Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) argued that the Legislature is “not empowering parents on certain things,” and that the statute dictates there will be no “harmful material” available to students.
“That doesn’t have parental leeway,” she said. “It doesn’t have school leeway either.”
A representative from the Texas Freedom to Read Project asked the committee, “What makes all of you politicians and all of the activists here today think you know what’s best and what’s appropriate for my children” or “the children in my community?” The representative also argued that SB 13’s standards are “subjective” because of the language “according to local community values.”
Wallace gave public testimony, reading out loud from a sexually explicit section from one of the “profane” books, which caused Campbell to cut her off — “I think we get that, we might skip some of that.”
“It’s not for y’all,” Wallace told the committee. “It’s for the librarians that are saying, ‘There’s not a single bad book in all of Texas libraries.’”
The 90th Legislative Session begins on January 12, 2027.