Canyons School District has until Friday, Oct. 16, to join a $60,000 state review of how books end up on school library shelves.

The Utah State Board of Education launched the review to examine vendor relationships, purchasing processes and the influence outside organizations may have on which titles reach students, as first reported by KUTV. Districts statewide must decide by Oct. 16 whether to participate in the data-gathering and survey phase. No deadline has been set for the review's completion.

The effort follows the statewide removal of seven more book titles in September, bringing Utah's total to 44 banned books, according to ABC4. None of the seven newly removed titles were available in elementary schools.

Sarah J. Maas now has seven books removed statewide, the most of any author, followed by Ellen Hopkins with six.

Board member Emily Green pushed for the review after expressing concern at a May meeting about the publishing industry's access to students. "So we don't have to continue to be reactive to an industry that has full access to a minority population," Green said at that meeting, according to KUTV. She also said she did not want school librarians placed "in the hot seat."

Under Utah's sensitive materials law, passed in 2024, a book faces statewide removal if at least three school districts, or two districts and five charter schools, independently determine it meets the state's definition of sensitive material.

Davina Sauthoff, the state board's library media specialist, said the review will unfold in phases covering finances, the supply chain, regulatory steps and parent complaint logs. Sauthoff said she did not yet know the specific concerns driving the project and that staff were directed to conduct a full process.

"As you collect the data, probably more questions will arise or be answered, and then that will kind of direct the next steps as we move along," Sauthoff told KUTV.

Shawn Mathis, a parent with one child in college and another in high school, said he questions how certain books enter schools at all. He said existing policies have not prevented books he considers inappropriate from reaching shelves.

The review has drawn criticism.

The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board wrote in a Sept. 4 editorial that the $60,000 cost could cover a year's pay for a teacher. The editorial board also noted the project would require more than 1,400 hours of staff time and called on the state board to cancel the effort.

Whether Canyons District opts in could determine how much local data from Sandy-area schools feeds into the state's findings. The state board has not announced when results will be released.