Tracking Florida Censorship

A provision within HB 1069 (2023) requires that every school district give parents a way to restrict library access for their children. This was not a new "right" for parents, the ability to set restrictions in the library for our children always existed, but this update in the law solidified that there must be a process. We asked all 67 districts to provide us with information on library access at the end of the first quarter of the 25/26 school year. Here is the data we have received to date (11/26/25).

A provision within HB 1069 (2023) requires that every school district give parents a way to restrict library access for their children. This was not a new "right" for parents, the ability to set restrictions in the library for our children always existed, but this update in the law solidified that there must be a process. We asked all 67 districts to provide us with information on library access at the end of August for the 24/25 school year. Here is the data we have received to date (9/20/24).

During the 2023 Florida Legislative Session, a new bill (HB 1069) expanded the efforts of the "Don't Say Gay" bill (HB 1557) and the "Book Ban/Transparency" bill (HB 1467) from the prior year. One of the provisions, now law, is that every school district must give parents a way to restrict library access for their children. Yes, an informal process always existed at the school level, but this big government provision prompted most districts to create a formal process for a parent to opt-in or opt-out of library access like we saw a few districts offer last year. Here are the trends and changes to the level of access we see happening around the state.

The Florida Governor has signed into law HB1467 which was marketed as a library transparency bill. All media (books, ebooks, films, audio, other supplemental materials) accessible in K-12 media centers and classroom libraries must go through an approval process that includes a certified media specialist. K-5 libraries must also include an online, searchable database of all materials made available to students for any Florida citizen to review. At the end of every school year, each school district is responsible for reporting any objections or removals of library materials to the Florida Department of Education. From there, the state will disseminate a complete list that combines all the district data collected for purposes of statewide consistency in library media materials. 

In response to the rise in book challenges and the other "parental rights" laws, many districts have implemented a multi-level library access system where parents can choose to limit what books their child has access to in the library. Each district took a varied approach, so in order to combine the data we narrowed the options to either no parental restrictions or parental restrictions. Restrictions range from banning particular titles or topics to avoiding "mature" (for the grade level) content, but the most restrictive levels either require parental permission to check out or have no checkout access.