DALLAS, Texas – BookmarkED, the industry-first technology solution to personalize libraries with parental choice, has announced its official launch in Texas. With the passing of Texas House Bill (HB) 900, school districts face a pressing need to meet the changing requirements for parental engagement on library books that children have access to. BookmarkED is a Texas-based company that enables parents to make individual decisions on literary options for their children and protects school districts from liability by ensuring compliance.
Library book challenges are increasing across the US. The American Library Association (ALA) documented 2,571 unique library books and resources challenged in 2022, nearly double the number of challenges reported in 2021 and the highest since ALA began compiling data more than 20 years ago. BookmarkED’s technology addresses the current state of challenged books by fostering parental choice to decide what books their children have access to, based on their family’s values and interests.
“BookmarkED is an innovative solution that fosters parent’s choices for their individual child so that decisions are one-to-one versus one-to-all. Our platform puts the power into the hands of their parents, so that they can decide the literary path for their children by setting parameters over what books their children have access to. We are driven to first empower Texas school districts with this technology, and then move to a national level,” said Steve Wandler, CEO and Co-Founder of BookmarkED.
BookmarkED’s key capabilities include:
· Providing parents with transparent choice and approval of their children’s reading materials.
· Ensuring compliance with state legislation related to parental choice.
· Reducing costs around the challenged book review process.
· Accessing state and nation-wide, real-time, factual data on challenged books in district libraries.
· Safeguarding schools and districts to soon provide a “BookmarkED Verified” seal of approval for individual books.
Wandler continued: “Furthermore, we equip schools with real-time data at the state and national level for challenged books, which no other solution in the market is capable of. Libraries currently rely on challenged book data from the previous year, which is quickly out of date as more books become challenged. BookmarkED’s data is real-time, which is powerful since school districts and libraries have the knowledge on when and why a book is challenged, if a book has been removed, and much more.”
Wandler has two decades of experience in leadership and entrepreneurship. Growing up, Wandler’s unique learning style caused him to struggle in the traditional academic setting, ultimately leading to him dropping out of high school. Eventually, he became an entrepreneur in the EdTech space with the dream to reshape the educational experience into a more positive one for future generations. Prior to BookmarkED, his passion for reshaping education drove him to co-found venture-capital-funded startup FreshGrade, a learning collaboration and portfolio tool. In addition, Wandler served as the COO of Thrively and on the Education Advisory Board at Simon Fraser University.
The solution will be available in select Texas school districts in fall 2023. BookmarkED will then expand its solution to more states in 2024.
If you are interested in learning more or working together, please reach out to us here: https://www.bookmarked.com/contact
About BookmarkED
BookmarkED is the industry-first technology solution to personalize libraries with parental choice. The innovative platform empowers parents to decide what books their children have access to, based on their personal values and interests. Based in Dallas, Texas, BookmarkED equips schools with real-time data at the state and national level for challenged books, and ensures compliance with state legislation. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, or go to: https://www.bookmarked.com
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
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