US school book bans hit record high, PEN America reports
US public schools logged 11,982 instances of book banning in the 2025-2026 school year, the highest annual total PEN America has reported since it began recording in 2021.
The figure covered 7,370 unique titles, meaning 7,370 distinct books. An instance means a single banning action, so the same title can generate several instances when it is removed in more than one school, according to Publishers Lunch.
More than 4,500 of those titles had not been recorded by PEN America before. That turnover matters in publishing, where a school order, meaning copies bought for classroom or library use, can keep a backlist title, meaning an older book still in print, in circulation long after first publication.
PEN America said 114 school districts put bans in place during the year. Most were in Florida and Texas. A school district in the United States is the local body that runs public schools in an area.
The organisation describes 114 as the largest number of banning districts it has recorded, according to PEN America. Many of the bans in 2025-2026 took place in Florida and Texas, states where lawmakers have passed restrictive laws, according to Yakima Herald-Republic.
The latest numbers were published in a report titled “A Spotlight on School Book Bans”. The report sits alongside PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans, meaning its running database of bans in US public schools, according to PEN America.
For comparison, PEN America’s 2022 report, “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools”, listed 2,532 instances affecting 1,648 unique titles. The 2025-2026 totals are several times those figures.
What makes this count stand out is the share of new entries. With more than 4,500 titles appearing for the first time, the list grew not only through repeat removals but through books that had not previously been counted at all.
