San Diego is giving a one-time reprieve to thousands of young people who have been banned from using the city’s libraries because they failed to return books or other items.
A new “fresh start” program will use donations from the San Diego Library Foundation to wipe out replacement costs the young people owe and allow them to resume checking out books and using online resources.
Library officials said the program will apply to 2,779 people under age 18 who have been banned because they failed to return an item. It will also apply to any young people in the future who fail to return items.
Library officials said the program, modeled on a similar effort in Seattle, is an important step toward eliminating barriers to library use by young people, especially those in foster care or in low-income families.
“We don’t want any youth to lose access to the library,” said Misty Jones, the city’s head librarian.
Jones said many times young people lose library privileges through no fault of their own. Their parent or guardian gets referred to collections and can choose whether to pay the fee, but the juvenile still gets banned.
This is particularly likely for young people in foster care or from low-income families, Jones said. She said 64 percent of the 2,779 banned young people are from library branches in low-income areas.
If the young people who have their privileges restored incur any additional fees, the fresh start program will not be an option for them.
The library foundation will contribute $175,500 to cover the replacement costs of the items the banned young people didn’t return.
“We hope you recognize the potential value and the impact on our communities,” Patrick Stewart, the foundation’s chief executive, told the City Council’s Community and Neighborhood Services Committee last week.
The foundation has also pledged to cover the replacement costs for additional youth who take advantage of the fresh start program.
The city treasurer has also agreed to waive $70,000 in fines and penalties that go beyond replacement costs.
In Seattle, 70 percent of the young people who had their fees waived began using library services again. And 80 percent of those young people haven’t accrued any additional fees.
Jones said the program builds on the city’s 2018 elimination of overdue fines for all patrons, not just young people. That shift, which has become a national trend, has boosted circulation and the number of library cards the city issues.
In October 2022, the library temporarily stopped referring juvenile accounts to collections so library staff could have a chance to deal directly with the young people and hopefully find solutions.
But that policy change, which Jones plans to make permanent, didn’t help the 2,779 young people who had already been banned through the collections process.
If an overdue item doesn’t get returned within 60 days, a library user gets an invoice for replacement costs. If the invoice isn’t paid within 120 days and the debt exceeds $10, the library user is referred to collections.
Jones said it makes sense to create exceptions for young people. She notes that nearly 60 percent of students in the San Diego Unified School District are considered high needs, meaning they are eligible for free or reduced lunch, an English learner or foster youth.
The library has a special partnership with the school district where all students are eligible for Student Excel cards that provide limited checkouts and access to resources without a traditional library card.
The city library system also serves half the local Juvenile Court and Community Schools, which educate wards of the court and young people who have been referred by social services, probation or a school district.
