PEN America index of school book bans – 2024-2025
PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans provides a list of books banned in the 2024-2025 school year and is also the source of data for the 2025 report, Banned in the USA: The Normalization of Book Banning.
The 2024-2025 banned book index is comprised of three searchable indices of each documented book ban in the school year sorted across book titles, school districts, and statewide bans. The Index lists instances where students’ access to books in school libraries and classrooms in the United States was restricted or diminished, for either limited or indefinite periods of time. Some of these bans have since been rescinded and some remain in place. More information about PEN America’s definition of school book bans can be found here.
Title Level Index (instances per book title per district)
This index lists all titles banned within school districts, as collected by PEN America, and is most similar to data presented in previous years.
District Level Index (count of bans per district)
This index presents data on book bans by district, including the total number of books banned, sources of pressure to ban books, and pushback against book bans at the district level where it can be identified. While similar to the Title-Level Index, this Index includes some districts for which information on specific titles banned was not publicly available, but where the total number of banned books and/ or an official acknowledgement that books were removed was documented.
State Mandated Bans index (statewide bans)
This Index captures an unprecedented phenomenon in the book banning crisis – the removal of specific books from all public schools statewide due to state policies in Utah and South Carolina. As described above, these policies, enacted in 2024, introduced mechanisms to create state-mandated “no read” lists. Tennessee is the third state that enacted such a mechanism in 2024; however, it has not yet been reported as used. For this category of state-level book bans, PEN America cannot verify if every district had a copy of the books that are now prohibited in school libraries, and therefore we do not include these bans within our title- and district-level indexes.
PEN America defines a school book ban as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished. Read more in our Frequently Asked Questions.