(LifeSiteNews) – The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) has told schools across the Sunshine State to keep sexually explicit material away from children or lose state funding.
In a September 23, 2026 memo to district superintendents and charter school leaders, Education Commissioner Henry Mack notes that state law and education rules require “providing only materials that are age- and developmentally appropriate.” Nevertheless, “parents continue to find a shocking amount of material that fails that test,” demonstrating that any “process that depends on a parent discovering explicit material, reading it in a public meeting, and then forcing a district response” is insufficient.
The memo reiterates that districts are specifically required to offer a publicly-available list of “all instructional materials and any other materials,” and mandates specific training for officials responsible for selecting such material.
“Recent district practice confirms that reactive review is not sufficient,” Mack writes. “In Hillsborough County, for example, sexual content remained available in high school libraries, including Call Me by Your Name and Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts). Hundreds of titles were subsequently pulled for review. As recently as this month, parents again appeared before Hillsborough County’s school board citing additional works – Kingdom of the Feared, Kingdom of the Wicked, Kingdom of the Cursed, and 1Q84 – and identifying passages they contend include sexually explicit content and even a sexual situation involving an adult and a child.”
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Mack warns that failure to comply with Florida’s standards will be punished “to the fullest extent” allowed by the law, “including the authority to, ‘withhold the transfer of state funds, discretionary grant funds, discretionary lottery funds, or any other funds specified as eligible for this purpose by the Legislature.’ The State Board may also declare a district ineligible for competitive grants and require periodic reporting until the noncompliance is remedied.”
Indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality and other agenda items has long been a major concern in American schools and libraries, from book shelves to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas. Across the nation, controversy has also erupted in recent years over schools and libraries adopting books that attempt to expose sexual themes and activity to children, often in graphic detail and with pornographic imagery depicting specific sex acts.
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The far-left American Library Association (ALA) has long been an obstacle in keeping inappropriate material from children. The organization’s Library Bill of Rights says books and other materials in libraries “should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation” or “because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” and that a “person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views,” without any means of restricting access to certain material on the basis of “chronological age.”
Florida under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a leader in the push against so-called “woke” education, from prohibiting schools from promoting Critical Race Theory as true; to history lessons raising awareness of the violent and oppressive history of Communism; to civics lessons aimed at instilling appreciation for America’s founding principles and institutions. DeSantis has also been personally involved in helping elect local “anti-woke” school board candidates, all to make Florida, in his words, the state where “woke goes to die.”