NYC Libraries Forgive Late Fees For Kids, Teens

NEW YORK CITY — Money no longer has to be a concern for New York's young bookworms. The city's three library systems — the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Library — forgave all overdue book fines Thursday for kids age 17 and younger.

About 20 percent of youth across the city couldn't take out books because they owed $15 or more in fines, the libraries said. The libraries automatically wiped away those fines Thursday with a grant from the nonprofit JPB Foundation, restoring borrowing privileges to about 160,000 students, according to The New York Times, which first reported the effort.

"Releasing the fines on the library books will allow children and parents to feel less guilty, number one, but to have access again to books that are not only pieces of paper and cardboard," Nia Keita, a patron of Melrose Library in the Bronx, said in a New York Public Library video. "They're really an opening to the world for them."

The amnesty is a one-time offer — fines will immediately start accruing again on any books or DVDs due after Thursday. While fine balances were reset to $0 automatically for kids 17 and younger, high school students aged 18 or older can visit their library branches to have fines forgiven through Nov. 2.

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Blocks on borrowing privileges were disproportionately affecting low-income students. Nearly half of the kids who owed at least $15 came from "high-need" neighborhoods, according to the New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.

The libraries are also encouraging kids to return overdue books and are holding a series of events to promote the fine-forgiveness program.

Fines and fees accounted for about $14.3 million, or 4.7 percent, of the New York Public Library's budget last year. Queens and Brooklyn rely on them less heavily; they comprised about 2.5 percent of the Brooklyn Public Library's 2016 budget and 1.2 percent of the Queens Library's 2015 budget.

The JPB Foundation's $2.25 million grant will help make up for lost revenue from teens' late fees, The New York Times reported.

The Queens Library also has a program called "Read Down Your Fines" that allows kids to reduce their fines by $1 for each half-hour they spend reading.

The fine-forgiveness program is an "experiment" that could lead to the elimination of fines for kids altogether, Queens Library President Dennis M. Walcott told the Times. Other big cities, including Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, have ended or greatly reduced late fees for kids and teens, the Times reported.

More information about the fine amnesty program is available at nyclibraries.org/newstart.

(Lead image: The New York Public Library, along with the Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Library, is forgiving overdue fines for kids and teens. Photo via Pixabay)