Overview
- The report tallies 6,870 school book-ban instances in 2024–25 across 23 states and 87 districts, down from more than 10,000 the prior year but totaling nearly 23,000 since 2021.
- About 80% of recent actions occurred in Florida, Texas and Tennessee, with Florida leading at 2,304 instances for the third consecutive year.
- Targets most often include books on LGBTQ+ identities, race and racism, or works with sexual or sexual-violence content, and many removals are preemptive responses to laws, directives or political pressure.
- Federal oversight narrowed in 2025 as the Education Department dismissed book-ban complaints and labeled the issue a hoax, while courts are testing state restrictions, including an August ruling that parts of Florida’s law are overbroad.
- Stephen King topped the most-banned authors list with 206 instances across 87 titles, and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange was the most-banned single book with 23 removals.