Nearly 12,000 school book bans in a year: What the record number actually counts

PEN America says U.S. public schools recorded nearly 12,000 book bans during the 2025-26 school year. That is the highest single-year total since the free expression group began tracking in 2021, according to the Associated Press.

The headline number is accurate. What it measures is narrower than "12,000 books," and the details matter.

## What the 12,000 figure counts

PEN logged 11,982 cases of books being removed or restricted in school libraries and classrooms. Those cases involved 7,370 individual titles, according to AP and PEN's report. That's because the same title can be counted more than once when it is pulled in more than one place.

More than 4,500 of the titles were on PEN's list for the first time, AP reported. PEN also counted a record 114 school districts with bans.

## Where the bans happened

The cases were heavily concentrated in two states. PEN says Texas had more than 8,100 cases and Florida had more than 3,200.

Together that comes to more than 11,300 of the 11,982 cases: (8,100 + 3,200) / 11,982 ≈ 94%. Because both state totals are listed as "more than," the true share is at least that high.

In Texas, PEN links the rise to Senate Bill 13, a 2025 law that changed how school library books are chosen and challenged.

## Why counts differ between groups

There is no single official national count of school book bans, and the main trackers count differently.

PEN counts a book as banned even if it was pulled only temporarily, for example while under review. The American Library Association counts only books that were permanently removed, AP reported. The ALA's most recent report, published in April, found about 5,600 cases for the previous year.

So a book that is pulled during a review and later returned to the shelf counts in PEN's total but not in the ALA's.

## What was removed

PEN says many of the removed books dealt with race and racism, LGBTQ+ characters and themes, or sexual content. Young adult fiction made up more than half of all bans.

Stephen King was the most-banned author for the second year in a row, with 312 removals, according to AP. The most-banned single title was "Sold," Patricia McCormick's novel about a girl trafficked into sexual slavery, with 25 removals. PEN also flagged a rise in removals of Japanese manga.

PEN reported that some districts used artificial intelligence tools to flag books for removal.

## What supporters of the laws say

Backers of the state laws say they are about parental control and age-appropriate material, not censorship.

Texas state Rep. Brad Buckley, a Republican who sponsored SB 13 in the House, said during the 2025 debate that "we should cherish and value our kids more, and Senate Bill 13 will do exactly that," according to the Texas Tribune. The law lets parents petition to form local advisory councils and gives school boards final say over library materials.

In Florida, Education Commissioner Henry Mack has told districts to keep auditing books and remove sexually explicit material even if no one has formally challenged it, according to AP. Districts that don't comply risk losing state funds.

Critics say the laws are written broadly enough to sweep in classics. AP noted that removals this year included "Jane Eyre" and "The Handmaid's Tale."

## What it means for you

If you're a student in Texas or Florida, the books available at your school library depend more and more on your local school board and on state rules, not just on librarians.

If you see "12,000 books banned" online, the more precise version is this: about 12,000 removals of roughly 7,400 titles, almost all in two states, counted by a method that includes temporary removals.