Jackson County Public Schools students have access to the N.C. Cardinal Student Access Initiative once again after the county withdrew from the program last year following concerns over its compliance with the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
“As a former school librarian, I was thrilled when the possibility of this coming back came up,” said Jackson County Public Library Director Grace Powell. “It’s such a valuable resource for our kids, and I’m glad we’ve found a way to offer it again.”
Since 2017, JCPS and the Fontana Regional Library System have partnered for the Student Access Initiative, which automatically adds all students and teachers to the patron database for participating libraries. Until last year, JCPS students could use their student ID number to check out physical library books, eBooks and use JCPL databases.
School administrators let the county’s participation with the program lapse for the 2025-26 school year.
According to Powell, teachers often used the program to access educational materials in the classroom, and students commonly used their Student Access Cards to check out books for personal reading.
The program removed the barrier of parents having to physically bring their child to the library to get a library card if the child wanted to use library resources, and, unlike a typical library card, it removed late fees for overdue materials. It also helped give students who lived far from the county’s two public libraries in Sylva and Cashiers easier access to library books and resources.
Last year, Student Access privileges came under fire at the height of the county’s controversial move to withdraw from the FRL system when county commissioners disagreed with its content development policy.
In a July 2025 joint Jackson County Commission and FRL Board meeting, Commissioner John Smith questioned whether the program violated the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
Passed in 2023, the North Carolina Parents’ Bill of Rights does not mention any regulations on libraries outside of public schools. However, the fact that Student Access Cards were granted through the school system gave school administrators pause and further frustrated commissioners, who spent a significant amount of time focused on restricting library books with both sex education and LGBTQ+ content in 2025.
Among other things, part of what the Parents’ Bill of Rights does is give North Carolina parents the right to withhold consent for participation in reproductive health and safety education programs, inspect school textbooks and supplementary materials and review all available records of materials their child has borrowed from a school library.
This year, however, JCPS Chief Technology Officer Greg Stewart and Powell believe they’ve made the changes necessary to bring back the Student Access Cards and offer students automatic access to public library resources once again.
“Before, any student — even a kindergartner — had access to the full library and all online resources,” said Stewart. “Now we can filter by grade level so older kids get what they need and younger kids don’t see anything that isn’t appropriate, and that keeps us compliant with the Parents’ Bill of Rights and keeps parents involved.”
JCPS has not yet rolled out access to online materials for the county’s Student Access Initiative, but Stewart said he expects to get digital access available to students and teachers sometime this semester.
With the new online content regulations, Stewart said all online library content is now sorted into five categories of reading levels: lower elementary, upper elementary, middle grade, lower high school and upper high school. Students will only have access to the materials within their grade levels according to publishers’ ratings.
Powell said the main change to this year’s Student Access Card in the physical library is that the card JCPL students are automatically given is a juvenile card, which restricts renting privileges to only the children’s section.
The juvenile card is meant for ages 16 and under. Powell said JCPL and JCPS are still working to find a solution to content regulations for upper high school students. County residents under the age of 18 can still come into the library with a parent or legal guardian to get a full-access library card if they so choose.
Powell and Stewart have worked diligently to get the Student Access Cards up and running for the 2026-27 school year, and their efforts are just one several examples of new challenges the county must face as it learns how to run its own library system since officially withdrawing from the FRL system on July 1.
County commissioners have been on the receiving end of much public ire in the wake of the FRL withdrawal. In July, they voted to effectively remove the public’s ability to rent out community rooms at the county’s two public libraries, and initial estimates from summer 2025 put the additional annual cost the county would pay in running the library outside the FRL system at $500,000.
Despite being a casualty of the vocal anti-LGBTQ+ and reproductive health content backlash in the county, Student Access Cards are back at JCPS, this time with new age-restricted content regulations.
Powell and Stewart are excited to have found a way to offer the program once again, and according to Powell, putting more (age appropriate) books in children’s hands is a good thing.
“You can travel to another country just by reading a book,” said Powell. “It’s a great way to escape. Maybe your life isn’t great at the moment, but you can jump into a book and be able to escape and live in a different world just for a little bit … which I think is really important for our kids, too.”
For any parents still wary of their child’s access to library materials through their Student Access Card, Powell encourages them to contact her to discuss their questions and concerns.