Arkansas Department of Education Accepting Public Comments on Rules Protecting Student Privacy

Legislation,

The Arkansas Department of Education is accepting public comments on newly proposed rules protecting the physical privacy of public school students.

Last year Gov. Sanders signed Act 317 by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) protecting privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities.

The law requires public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use.

It also addresses sleeping accommodations for students on overnight school trips — something that has been a serious problem for students in other states.

The Department of Education’s new rules would act as executive policies to help ensure Arkansas’ public schools are properly following Act 317.

Every student has a right to physical privacy and safety at school and on school-sponsored trips.

Public school students’ school records are protected by law, because we value student privacy. A student’s physical privacy should be just as important.

Act 317 helps protect the physical privacy of public school students in school showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and similar facilities on campus, and it helps protect physical privacy and safety on overnight trips.

Family Council was pleased to support Act 317. We are grateful to the General Assembly for passing Act 317 and to the Arkansas Department of Education for promulgating rules to implement it.

Family Council’s team is reviewing the proposed rules, and we intend to offer public comments on them later this month.

You Can Read a Copy of the Proposed Rules Here.

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Arkansas Libraries Continue to Push Sexually Explicit Materials on Kids

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Above: The book It’s Perfectly Normal sits on display in the children’s section of the Craighead County Public Library in Jonesboro. The book contains inappropriate illustrations depicting nudity and sexual activity.

The following is adapted from a column that appeared in Family Council’s April update letter.

Public libraries and school libraries have been a source of contention in recent years. Parents in Arkansas—and throughout the nation—have discovered graphic sexual materials in the children’s section of their local libraries. 

It is important to note that progress has been made due to the dedicated efforts of parents, good librarians, and other community members interested in protecting the innocence of children.  However, there are still activists in local libraries who are intent on making sexual material available to children.  For example, the picture next to this column is from a display in the children’s section of the Craighead County Library last December.  The book It’s Perfectly Normal contains graphic pictures of same-sex and opposite-sex couples having sex, descriptions of anal sex, pictures of children masturbating, and more than 30 pictures of naked adults of various ages.  It also promotes abortion as a healthy choice. 

This book had been redesignated for shelving on a special shelf for parents and teachers rather than for circulation in the normal children’s shelving.  However, that did not keep staff members from going out of their way to still expose children browsing the shelves to graphic sexual materials.  A concerned parent noticed this book on display to kids and brought it to the attention of the children’s library director.  Thankfully, she removed it from the display, but how many kids may have been exposed before the book was reshelved?  

It’s a reminder of an eye-opening quote promoted on the Citizens Defending the Craighead County Library Facebook page by those fighting for a right to expose kids to explicit materials:  

“It was about kids learning that other kinds of sex existed, or that sex existed at all.” 

It should always be a parent’s right and choice about when to teach their kids about sex and what specific materials to use.  When did strangers begin to think they are the ones who have this right?   

The bottom line is that children’s sections of local libraries are still not safe places for children in Arkansas, and we have much work to do to restore libraries as places where children can safely explore the world of books in their own designated areas.  Libraries truly are community treasures, and good libraries and good librarians are a blessing.  That’s why Christians and others interested in safeguarding the innocence of children should not give up on our libraries.  

Family Council is grateful to Sen. Dan Sullivan for sponsoring Act 372 of 2023 to help deal with these important issues.  This good law prohibits giving or sending a child sexual material that is harmful to minors. It also removes exemptions for libraries in the state’s obscenity laws. Some Arkansas libraries have sued to block enforcement of Act 372, and Judge Timothy Brooks has put some sections of the law on a temporary hold pending a final ruling.  However, other helpful parts of the law remain in effect.  For example, a challenge process for obscene materials in school media centers and libraries remains in effect.  A provision that gives parents access to their children’s library records also remains in effect.  Amazingly, parents did not have this right of access under state law before the passage of Act 372.  Importantly, the section that removes language from state law that shielded school and library personnel from prosecution for disseminating obscene materials to kids also remains in effect.  I think we can all agree that no one deserves a legal exemption for knowingly providing obscene materials to kids.

Stephanie Nichols is Director and Chief Legal Counsel for Arkansas Justice Institute, a division of Family Council.

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Updated: Arkansas Risks Lagging Behind Other States on Pregnancy Center Funding

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Above: On April 4, 2023, lawmakers passed a measure authorizing $1 million in funding for grants to pregnancy help organizations in the state.

Last year, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Act 622 of 2023 renewing the state’s annual funding for pregnancy help organizations.

Under Act 622, the Department of Finance and Administration will distribute $1 million in state-funded grants for crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services agencies that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies between now and June 30, 2024.

This grant funding provides women and families with alternatives to abortion.

To date, the State of Arkansas has successfully distributed nearly half of this funding to pregnancy help organizations.

While this funding is good, Arkansas actually runs the risk of lagging behind other states when it comes to funding alternatives to abortion.

Since the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade, state legislatures around the country have ramped up state funding for pregnancy help organizations. For example:

In Tennessee, legislators have appropriated $20 million for pro-life organizations that provide alternatives to abortion.

Florida’s state budget allocates at least $25 million for pregnancy help organizations.

The Texas Legislature now budgets $70 million per year for its abortion alternatives program.

And Kansas—where some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in 2022—provides $2 million to pregnancy centers.

In terms of per capita spending, Arkansas would need to budget approximately $2.1 million for alternatives to abortion to be on par with Kansas and $7.1 million to be equivalent with Texas.

Now that Roe v. Wade has been reversed and abortion is generally prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother, the state needs to take steps to make abortion unthinkable and unnecessary. Public grant funding for pregnancy help organizations does that.

That is why Family Council intends to be back at the state capitol when lawmakers convene next week to work for an even larger appropriation that will provide funding for Arkansas’ pregnancy centers in the coming fiscal year.

This grant funding literally is an investment in Arkansas’ future generations.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

This article has been updated to better reflect the per capita amounts Arkansas would need to allocate to provide funding comparable to Texas and Kansas.

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