SB 269-PARENT ACCESS TO CHILD'S LIBRARY RECORDS  The committee took up SB 269. MS. JACQUELINE TUPOU, Staff to Senator Green, presented the bill on behalf of the sponsor and gave the following explanation: Current state law says that parents have access to their children's records for the public school libraries, but it does not address public libraries. So this bill clarifies that parents have access, not only to public school libraries, they additionally have access to public libraries. This issue has been immensely logistically problematic ... [for example, the parent of] an 8-year old son. She came to the Senator, and her 8-year old son had put some books in the children's section on hold, and they called the mother and said 'well his books are ready to be picked up' and she said, 'well, which one?' and they said, 'oh well we can't tell you that,' and she said 'you can't tell me which book my 8-year old son has at the library?' and they said, 'no, it's against confidentiality.' And she was very surprised, so she contacted the Senator. There is also an email in your packet from Dianne Keller, who is the mayor of Wasilla, and it discusses the situation where she owed some fines for her son, and they wouldn't let her know about the fines. This law, the way it currently is written, leaves us with a situation where the parents are responsible to pay the $67, and when they call and say, 'what's this $67 for?' they say, 'well we can't tell you, just write us a check.' So that's an immensely problematic situation. And that came to the Senator's attention. An additional piece, you'll see also in your packet, is an email from the Department of Education, and this has become an immense problem - [regarding] the parental access to their children's records - so much that as a result of the 2002 Supreme Court decision, they actually made an office, it's called the Family Policy Compliance Office and it's just policing the states that are not in compliance. And if you are not in compliance then you will not receive federal funds for your education programs. So this is an important piece of legislation for us to pass today. SENATOR GUESS asked if there was a need to worry about emancipated minors. MS. TUPOU responded that since "they don't have people that have parental rights at that point that could call and access those, ... they're self taken care of." MS. ANDREE McLEOD testified from Anchorage in favor of HB 269, saying that she is a parent of a 21-year old. She stated this addresses acrimonious public policy pertaining to children who are under the age of 18. Public libraries, paid for with public funds, are being permitted to withhold information from parents about their minor children. A much deeper problem is to allow librarians to do as they will, without censure. The Legislature is constantly passing bills making parents more responsible for children's behavior; public policy providing incentives for better parenting is becoming more exact and more detailed. In turn, parents have a moral obligation to raise their children well. Ms. McLeod emphasized the importance of parental rights - including obtaining information pertaining to their children - to mitigate children's behavior, should it be less than good. Parents are legally and completely responsible for their children until the age of 18. She contended that at the very least, parents do not need a publicly funded librarian encroaching on their inherent and absolute parental rights. Librarians violating those rights by not releasing children's public library records to parents should be reproached and held accountable. SENATOR GUESS asked if this bill was necessary, not because librarians were out of control, but because of currently complying with the law, which says that those records can't be released. She received confirmation this was correct. VICE CHAIR GREEN ascertained that there was no further public testimony and asked for the will of the committee. SENATOR GUESS moved to report CSSB 269 (CRA) out of committee with individual recommendations and the attached zero fiscal note. VICE CHAIR GREEN noted there was no objection, and it was so ordered.