Florida Schools Pull Nearly 400 Books as Legal Battles Mount

Florida public schools removed or discontinued nearly 400 books during the 2024-25 school year, the latest chapter in a statewide censorship fight that’s drawing national attention—and lawsuits.

According to a new report from the Florida Department of Education, school boards across the state acted on parent or guardian objections to pull about 400 titles from shelves, down from roughly 700 the year before. Yet that state tally clashes sharply with findings from free-speech advocates who say thousands more books have effectively disappeared from student reach.

One County Drives Most Removals

The state report notes that no books were removed in 56 of Florida’s 67 counties—almost 84% of districts. More than half of all removals came from Clay County, just southwest of Jacksonville, highlighting how fiercely the issue can play out at the local level.

Florida publishes its list of removed titles annually, as required by law, when school boards respond to formal objections. This year’s list dropped in September, two months earlier than last year’s release of about 700 titles. Among the books named: modern YA and crossover favorites such as Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts), The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and All Boys Aren’t Blue—many centering LGBTQ+ characters or social justice themes.

The pattern mirrors national trends showing that queer and racial-identity stories are disproportionately targeted. PEN America has repeatedly warned that Florida has become the epicenter of school book removals, ranking the state No. 1 for bans for three straight years and recording 2,300+ bans in 2024-25 alone.

State Numbers vs. Censorship Watchdogs

Why the huge gap between the state’s 400 removals and PEN America’s thousands? The advocacy group uses a broader definition of a “ban,” counting books removed from libraries without a formal challenge, titles restricted by grade level, or those requiring parental permission.

Earlier this year, PEN America reported that Florida districts—including Hillsborough County—pulled hundreds of books preemptively amid fears of state sanctions. Frequently targeted titles include A Clockwork Orange, Wicked, and Colleen Hoover’s blockbuster It Ends With Us. For a deeper dive into how Hoover’s work keeps getting caught in the culture-war crossfire, see our coverage of her ongoing legal fight in It Ends With Us.

Florida’s current wave of removals stems from HB 1069, a 2023 law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that made it easier to challenge school library books. A federal judge struck down key parts of that law in August, calling it unconstitutionally vague and warning that treating book removals as simple “government speech” would only silence disfavored viewpoints.

Court Fights Will Shape What Students Can Read

Despite that ruling, the state is appealing, and Florida’s book policies are now tied up in several federal cases. One lawsuit challenges the removal of And Tango Makes Three, the children’s book about two male penguins raising a chick, while another argues that parents’ First Amendment rights are violated when they can’t contest removals at all.

The outcome won’t just matter for Floridians. Advocates say it could set the tone for school libraries nationwide, as other states experiment with aggressive new restrictions. We’ve already seen similar legal flashpoints in Missouri and Tennessee, where judges and lawmakers are clashing over how far book bans can go.

For readers, the stakes are simple: whether teens can still find challenging, messy, identity-shaping stories on their school shelves—or whether those stories move into a shadow collection of “forbidden” books that students must hunt for on their own. As Florida heads back to court, the fight over who gets to decide what kids can read is only intensifying.