PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression, says that while the number of book bans in schools is declining, it’s still “rampant.”
According to PEN’s report on book bans in school libraries across the United States, there were 6,870 bans in the 2024-25 school year. That’s a reduction from the previous year when there were 10,046 bans, but up considerably from the 2022-23 school year where there were 3,362 bans in school libraries across the U.S.
The data shows Florida and Texas had among the greatest number of book bans. In Florida, 33 school districts had 2,304 bans. In Texas, a total of 1,781 bans were documented across seven school districts.
In Virginia, there were 96 book bans in King George County Schools and one in Lynchburg City; and in Maryland, there were six book bans in Carroll County. No book bans were recorded in the District.
“A lot of people are removing books because they’re afraid,” said Tasslyn Magnusson, a senior adviser with PEN’s Freedom to Read initiative.
Referring to a January executive order issued by President Donald Trump’s administration, Magnusson said many school districts are “afraid of the rhetoric, they’re afraid of the chilled environment for speech, and so they’re complying in advance” by pulling books from library shelves.
That order called for the removal of nearly 600 titles from Department of Defense schools that serve the children of military families, and increased calls to remove certain books from school libraries.
Magnusson said not every challenge to a book is considered a ban by PEN’s standards.
“If you challenge a book and if it stays on the shelf as it moves through that challenge process, that’s not a book ban, in our definition,” she said.
The 1962 book “A Clockwork Orange” was among the top five books banned in the last school year, according to PEN America. Bestselling horror author Stephen King was the most banned author, with 87 book titles banned 206 times.
Asked if there are books that simply don’t belong in a school library, Magnusson pointed to school boards, librarians and educators within schools to make that call.
“They are the ones who really have the authority to do this,” she said. “And parents have lots of feelings and frustrations with education as a whole, and they’re very welcome to follow the reconsideration policy and it may very well be that they’re right.”
But Magnusson added, “The fact is that one parent doesn’t get to determine what every other parent wants or needs or what their kid might have a right to read in school.”