Books, we love them! School libraries, our favorite! The work required by LB 390? Not so much. The Unicameral passed LB 390 in 2025 which requires school boards to adopt a policy relating to parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker (the law calls them all “parents”) access to certain school library information. This bill now lives as law at Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-533.04. This law may not sound like a page-turner, but trust us, this one’s got plot twists.
What’s Required?
Before school starts in fall 2026, every Nebraska school district will need to adopt a Board Policy that does two key things:
Requires the creation of a catalog of all books in the school district’s library, organized by school building. This catalog must be accessible to parents.
Provide the “opportunity” for a parent of a student to be notified when the student checks out a book, including the book’s title, author, and due date.
Sounds simple? Well, like most new legislation, the details matter yet there aren’t enough.
Paper or Pixels — Your Choice
Good news: The law doesn’t demand anything fancy. Your “catalog” doesn’t have to sparkle online, and a paper binder would do, as long as it’s accessible to parents. That said - the vast majority of schools use digital catalogue systems already so it may be simple to allow parent access. Similarly, the “notification” can be an email, push notification from an app, or via a website.
Defining “Books”
The law only applies to “books” in the school’s library. That means traditional hardbacks and paperbacks are covered. But what about periodicals? Or eBooks? The law simply does not provide any answers. It clearly uses the word “books” in the catalog and parental notice sections, yet references the broader term “library materials” in another part of the statute. Legislators are presumed to use different terms intentionally, so we think your initial focus should be on “books.”
When judges aren’t sure what a word means, they often look at a contemporary dictionary. Merriam-Webster online defines “book” as “a set of written sheets of skin or paper or tablets of wood or ivory.” That’s fun. An alternative definition is “a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together between a front or back cover.” Cool. Take that and go forth!
The Opt-In Plot Twist
The law requires schools to give parents the opportunity to be notified; in other words, they must opt in. So, schools will need to design a simple way for parents to sign up and track who wants notifications. That means thinking ahead about:
How to collect and manage opt-ins (paper, online, have parents mail the school a form, etc.);
How to keep records of which parents opted in;
How you may want to provide notices for parents who have opted in;
What happens if your librarian or media specialist is out sick the day a student checks out a potentially controversial book?
Practical Tips for Districts
While the 2026-2027 school year sounds far away, don’t wait until the final chapter. Work with your media specialists and tech staff to start outlining your district’s approach. Consider:
Is your library system ready for this?
How will you ensure catalogs stay up-to-date?
How can you make the process consistent across multiple school buildings?
How will you train staff (and communicate with parents) about the change?
End Notes
We agree with one of our favorite colleagues (ahem, Steve) who put it best: “Don’t wait until the last minute to start working on this.” The policy itself is the easy part. You have plenty of time to adapt a policy to your practices, but first you need to figure out what your practices will be. The hard part is what you need to do in the upcoming months. Start on a plan now to work with your media specialist(s) to understand your current systems and options available for the catalog and parent notice obligations.
We have a sample policy drafted that meets the basic legal obligations, but again, the policy should not be where your focus is for now. We will have the policy available for subscribers to download from our portal. If you’re not a subscriber but are interested in seeing KSB’s model policy, reach out to one of us. If you have any questions, please shoot us an email at ksb@ksbschoollaw.com.