Arguably, a high school could also take these books. I know that’s drawing a thin line, but arguably a high school library is for high school students–and it’s unlikely that any younger children would have access to these books there. Where I did my student teaching they had classes on writing children’s literature, and we did use children’s books as examples in class and for students to use for research. Also, there are high school students with disabilities that are actually reading on that level, and these books would be valuable to them. They could also be used high school and college art rooms for collages…turning them into wall art which is exempt from the law (although if not published before 1922 that opens up the copyright can of worms…which schools have been fairly safely ignoring for years, but some famous artwork using “found” materials have been subject too).

The CPSC has release this recently (I believe Monday Feb 9): Guidance on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) for Small Businesses, Resellers, Crafters, and Charities (pdf)

It’s availableb on their website.

Here’s the link:
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

According to this release, Charities can only accept items which fulfill the CPSIA requirements.

Last year we shipped over 4500 used books to nearly 50 countries. (Note that CPSIA not only regulates distribution and sale but export as well.)

Our bookstore is the sole means of income for our family, and we currently have over 7000 books catalogued. In our children’s department, 35% of our picture books and 65% of our chapter books were printed before 1985.

Many of our older children’s books have painted decorative titles and other cover embellishment, which decoration is an extremely small quantity and which may or may not contain over 600 ppm lead. (The limits for each accessible part or paint layer are going to 300 ppm in August and 100 ppm in 2011.)

We have read the legislation, called our representative, called our senator, contacted the CPSC (no answer), read all of the CPSC press releases, and contacted a lawyer. We still honestly have no idea what is legal to sell, but we cannot simply discard a wealth of our culture’s nineteenth and twentieth children’s literature over this.