I've seen a lot of posts on social media from teachers looking for play recommendations. Along with this is a glut of requests for titles that are "family friendly." It must be terribly frustrating to find a title, go through the application process only to have your show shot down by an administrator, parent, or school board member. If they don't trust the Drama teacher to choose plays, what evidence can we produce to calm people who are willing to shut down a play without reading the script?
There is a great resource available for you that has been in development for decades. EdTA, (or as it was originally called, the National Thespian Society) has been collecting data on the plays that are being produced by its member schools since 1938. That's before your principal and school board were born. If you are stuck with an administration that is afraid of something new, dig into the archives and put together a season of plays that not only are not only going to keep you out of trouble, they're just good plays.
This is the link to the Edta Play Survey, including the 21-22 survey: (they're still collecting the data on this year's plays: https://schooltheatre.org/play-survey/
In 2015, NPR did a news story about the annual play survey, including some data analysis that had never been done before. You can find that story (updated in 2020) here: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2019/07/31/427138970/the-most-popular-high-school-plays-and-musicals
I'm not saying you should do nothing but plays from the survey, but for the time being, if you need someone to provide cover, the survey is good company to keep.
...and a personal note...
On April 23, Robert Patrick died. I met him while I was directing a college production of his play Kennedy's Children in 1978. A couple of years later, when I was a first-year teacher, he wrote me a letter, telling me what a great time he was having at the International Thespian Festival at Ball State in Muncie. The next year I started going to Thespian Festivals. Every single time I have learned something new, met someone important in Educational Theatre, and gone home inspired. I stayed in touch with Bob over the years, sharing stories, trading scripts, lots of letters and too few in-person visits, and....and I just can't get used to a world without him in it. Good night, sweet prince.
Billy Houck