UNITED STATES / RankWire.AI / – U.S. public schools recorded 11,982 book bans during the 2025-26 school year, according to PEN America. The figure set a new annual high since the group began tracking restrictions in 2021. Those bans covered 7,370 unique titles across 114 school districts. More than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators appeared in the records. Canadian writers Margaret Atwood and Ryan North were among the authors affected by the expanding wave of removals.
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale remained among titles caught in school censorship disputes. North’s Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable Path Adventure entered PEN America’s index for the first time. Young-adult books made up more than half of banned titles. Fiction represented more than 80% of the total. More than 4,500 titles appeared in the index for the first time, showing how widely the restrictions reached.
Texas and Florida dominated the national totals. Texas accounted for more than 8,100 bans, while Florida recorded more than 3,200. PEN America said state legislation influenced bans in 72% of the districts it tracked. Texas Senate Bill 13 expanded parental authority over school library materials during the 2025-26 academic year. The law also established statewide rules for material officials classify as harmful, indecent, profane or unsuitable for minors.
Conservative campaigns expand pressure on schools
Conservative advocacy groups have become central players in many challenges to school books. Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom and Parents’ Rights in Education have supported removal campaigns across several states. PEN America has linked such groups to organized conservative activism around education. National library data for 2025 showed pressure groups, government officials and institutional decision-makers generated 92% of reported book challenges. Individual parents accounted for fewer than 3%, undercutting claims that the national surge comes mainly from isolated family complaints.
The content of challenged books also follows a clear pattern. PEN America says restrictions frequently affect books about race, racism, LGBTQ+ people, sexuality and sexual violence. Works featuring people of color also appear often in its tracking. Educators and librarians had already selected many of these books for school collections. Conservative political campaigns, state laws and public challenges now carry greater influence over which titles students can read.
Book bans deepen free-expression concerns
The scale of the restrictions now extends far beyond scattered local disputes. PEN America has documented more than 34,000 school book bans since 2021. The American Library Association separately counted 4,235 unique titles challenged during 2025. It also recorded 5,668 books banned from libraries and another 920 facing access limits. The organizations use different methods, but both report sustained pressure on access to books and educational materials nationwide.
Atwood and North bring a Canadian dimension to a dispute driven largely by U.S. state politics. Republican-backed laws and conservative advocacy networks have reshaped many decisions over school library collections. Free-expression organizations say broad removals reduce access to books covering race, identity, sexuality and other contested subjects. Supporters of tighter controls argue that schools must screen materials for age suitability. The latest totals show that politically driven book restrictions now affect thousands of titles across American public schools.