Carrie O’Brien and Chris Thomas

Under Arizona law, any school district committee formed to review or adopt textbooks or curriculum must comply with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law (“OML”), pursuant to A.R.S. §§15-721 and 15-722. School district textbook and curriculum committees that failed to follow the OML recently have been the subject of multiple complaints to the Arizona Attorney General. Last week, the Arizona Attorney General found yet another school district had violated the OML related to this issue.

The OML requires any committees formed to adopt or review textbooks and curriculum post notice of meetings, be open to the public, and take minutes. This requirement applies to all such committees, no matter how the committee is created (by governing board action or by a single head of the agency) or authorized to act. It is for this reason that we recommend that school districts delete the word “board-authorized” from any policies that apply to textbook or curriculum committees. The specific policies affected are most commonly found in Arizona School Boards Association policies IGA, IGB and IJJ.

Please contact any of our education law attorneys if you have specific questions about the textbook adoption/curriculum review committee process or policy revisions to comply with the law.

Robert D. Haws
rhaws@gustlaw.com
602.257.7976

Carrie L. O’Brien
cobrien@gustlaw.com
602.257.7414

Jennifer N. MacLennan
maclennan@gustlaw.com
602.257.7475

Susan P. Segal
spsegal@gustlaw.com
602.257.7425

Clair DeChambre
cdechambre@gustlaw.com
928.213.8757

C. Benson Hufford
bhufford@gustlaw.com
520.388.4797

Nathan Schott
nschott@gustlaw.com
928.213.8741

Christopher P. Thomas
cthomas@gustlaw.com
602.257.7675

Brittany J. Reed
reed@gustlaw.com
602.257.7963

Mary Colleen Fowler
mfowler@gustlaw.com
602.257.7408

R. Gehl Tucker
gtucker@gustlaw.com
928.213.8756