U.S. School Book Bans Reach Record 12,000 in 2025-2026
U.S. public schools recorded nearly 12,000 instances of book bans in the 2025-2026 school year, the highest single-year total to date, according to PEN America. PEN America The group released the count on Oct. 5, 2026, to coincide with Banned Books Week.
The total brings the cumulative count to 34,000 instances since PEN America began tracking in 2021, the group said. The Guardian More than 7,000 unique titles were affected in 2025-2026, a record number. More than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators had work subject to bans. Bans were recorded in 114 school districts, also the highest number for a single year.
An instance means one removal in one district, so the same title can count several times. Texas accounted for more than 8,100 bans, the greatest number of any state. Florida recorded more than 3,200. Together the two states accounted for the vast majority of bans nationally. Florida had ranked first for book bans in each of the three previous school years before 2025-2026.
PEN America attributed the Texas surge to SB13, a 2025 state law that bars extensive categories of books in schools. The group said many districts banned books in large numbers for fear of not complying with confusing legislation. More broadly, it said new state censorship laws accounted for much of the year-on-year increase.
The mechanics of removal also shifted. PEN America said artificial intelligence was used to remove books en masse in 2025-2026, including popular manga series and other graphic novels. Atsushi Ohkubo, author of Soul Eater and Fire Force, Hajime Isayama, author of Attack on Titan, and Rumiko Takahashi, author of Inuyasha, were among the most commonly banned authors.
The most frequently banned title was Sold by Patricia McCormick, a 2006 award-winning young adult novel about a teenager from Nepal sold into sexual slavery. Stephen King was the most banned author for the second year running. Fiction comprised more than 90% of young adult titles subject to bans, according to PEN America. Kasey Meehan is director of the organization's Freedom to Read program.
The 2025-2026 figures are up sharply from 6,870 instances across 23 states and 87 public school districts in 2024-2025. In that year, King was also the most banned author, with 206 instances affecting 87 works, including Carrie and The Stand.
The broader context here is a change in scale and method rather than only volume. State-level statutes now drive collection-level decisions, with compliance risk replacing title-by-title review in many districts. That concentrates the national count in a small number of jurisdictions while widening the range of titles swept up in each action.
Looking at what this means for practitioners, the variables to watch are statutory language, enforcement guidance, and procurement and review procedures. Automated flagging increases throughput and reduces individualized determination. Whether bans reflect sustained removal or temporary withdrawal pending review will shape access, administrative burden, and litigation exposure differently across states.
