Book banning in US public schools was at its highest level during the 2025-2026 school year, according to a new report by PEN America. PEN tracked 11,982 instances of book banning, with 7,370 unique titles banned. More than 4,500 of those titles had not previously been recorded. The organization reports that 114 school districts—mostly in Florida and Texas—instituted bans. Each of these numbers breaks a dismal record; this is the most instances of books bans, the most titles, the most new titles, and the highest number of school districts since PEN began recording in 2021. The previous high was approximately 10,000 […]
