Banned Books Guide

New Jersey School Board Association (NJSBA) defines policies and regulation in this document. Here is a quote: 

A policy is a broad rule or a statement of belief. It guides the school district administration in managing operations. School boards adopt policies on a myriad of issues, ranging from curriculum and student discipline to staff conduct and the use of school facilities by community organizations. (...) Bylaws are policies that govern the board’s operation, such as voting methods.

Regulations The policy manual may also contain “regulations.” Regulations provide detailed directions on how the school board’s policies will be carried out. For example, a board’s policy may call for communicating with the public via the district’s website, while the regulations would provide greater detail, such as who has authority to place an item on the website, how to decide which items have priority, and what issues are appropriate for posting. Some boards take a vote to adopt regulations, while others leave the regulations in the hands of the superintendent, who is the district’s chief school administrator (Source: https://www.njsba.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Policy-NBMO.pdf)

New Jersey school district policies are created by law firms and later adapted by the local school boards. School districts are obligated to provide access to their policies, school's curricula and other data points. 

School policies that talk about book banning are: 

• Policy #2530 Library Resource Materials and Regulation #2530
• Policy #9130 Public Complaints and Grievances and Regulation #9130

Well written policy #2530 will be:

• up to date (less than 5 years old)
• it will mention specific conditions under which school library operates: who runs the library (New Jersey highly qualified and certified Media Center Library Specialist/aka School Librarian), who makes the book selections (certified Media Center Library Specialist/aka School Librarian), who decides which books are to be removed (certified Media Center Library Specialist/aka School Librarian)
• the policy might refer to the obligation to follow New Jersey Student Learning Standards and other laws

Regulation #2530 will provide more details regarding implementation of the policy. Usually it will mention that the school district has Reconsideration Form which needs to be filed if someone wants to initiate the process of challenging a book. 

Please check out this handbook created by New Jersey Association of School Librarians for additional information.