Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack ordered every school district in the state to proactively remove sexually explicit books from libraries and classrooms or risk losing state funding.

The directive, sent Wednesday in a seven-page memo, applies to Miami-Dade County Public Schools and its roughly 400 schools, including MAST Academy on Virginia Key and the Key Biscayne K-8 Center. The Miami Herald first reported the memo Thursday.

What the 90-day directive requires

Mack told superintendents that "reactive review" of books after parent complaints is no longer acceptable. Districts must now continuously audit their collections and cross-check them against a state list of titles already removed in other counties. If a book on that list sits on a local shelf, the district is "required" to review it, according to the memo.

The memo lays out a plan for the next 90 days. Among the requirements: immediate collection audits, a freeze on unvetted book donations, cross-referencing the state's list of discontinued titles and creating Library Materials Integrity Panels that include parents, according to FL Voice News.

Districts that do not comply risk losing state funds, grants, Florida Lottery money and other legislative appropriations. The Florida Department of Education said it would open formal probable-cause investigations against noncompliant districts.

Why Mack says the current process fails

Mack cited a recent Hillsborough County school board meeting as the catalyst. Parents there read aloud passages from books they considered inappropriate, including "Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out" by Susan Kuklin, "A Court of Wings and Ruin" by Sarah J. Maas and "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison.

Mack wrote that the current complaint-driven process amounts to administrative neglect and must end. He said parents should not have to discover explicit material and read it at a public meeting to force a district response.

Section 1006.28 of the Florida Statutes allows districts to review and remove a book after a complaint. It does not explicitly require districts to cross-check other counties' removal lists or to pull titles preemptively. Mack's directive goes further, shifting the burden from parents to district staff.

School librarians and media specialists already undergo state training that instructs them to "err on the side of caution" and to "lean towards" keeping a book off shelves if they would not be comfortable reading a passage aloud at a public meeting, according to the Herald.

Miami-Dade has yet to respond

As of Friday, Miami-Dade County Public Schools had not publicly responded to the directive, and no statement from Superintendent Rafael Villalobos appeared in public records. The memo gives districts 90 days from Sept. 23, or until Dec. 22, to comply.

Families at MAST Academy and Key Biscayne K-8 can monitor the district's response through Miami-Dade County School Board meetings and the Florida Department of Education's list of removed titles.