A study from the Knight Free Expression Research Series produced by Knight Foundation in partnership with Langer Research Associates.

Executive Summary

Book challenges and restrictions in U.S. public schools have increased dramatically since 2021.[1] Yet research on public awareness, attitudes and engagement in these activities is limited. In an effort to fill this critical knowledge gap in the national dialogue, Knight Foundation partnered with Langer Research Associates to survey a random national sample of more than 4,500 adults, deeply exploring public attitudes on restricting students’ access to books in public schools. This research extends the foundation’s two-decade history of public opinion polling on attitudes toward the First Amendment and free expression.

Read the full report here.

Download the supplemental materials and methodology here. Download the full raw data set in here: .csv format, .sav format.

Key Findings

Majorities of Americans feel informed about book restriction efforts and say the issue is personally important to them. Still, few actively participate.

About six in 10 feel informed about debates to restrict access to books in public schools. As many call the issue highly important.
About one in four (23 percent) are aware of efforts to restrict public school students’ access to books in their community. Thirteen percent say book access in fact has been restricted due to these efforts.
Far fewer, 3 percent, personally have engaged on this issue: 2 percent to maintain book access, 1 percent to restrict it.

Two-thirds of Americans oppose efforts to restrict books in public schools and most are confident in public schools’ selection of books.

Strong sentiment is lopsided, with strong opponents of book restrictions outnumbering strong supporters by nearly 3-1.
In general terms, 78 percent of adults are confident that their community’s public schools select appropriate books for students to read.
Additionally, more people say it is a bigger concern to restrict students’ access to books that have educational value than it is to provide them with access to books that have inappropriate content. This view is especially prevalent when it comes to middle and high school students.

Most Americans see age appropriateness as a legitimate issue, especially for younger students – even as concern about exposure to inappropriate books is limited. Marking the issue’s complexity, trust in specific groups to determine age appropriateness is lower than trust in schools’ book selections more generally.

Six in 10 see age appropriateness as a legitimate reason to restrict students’ book access. Far fewer say it is legitimate to block access to books that contradict parents’ political views, religious beliefs or moral values.
Potentially controversial topics are more likely to be seen as appropriate for high school students, followed by middle school students; objections rise when it comes to content for elementary school students. These views are sharply divided, especially along ideological lines.
Just 7 percent of parents with reading-age children say their child has read an age-inappropriate book from school.[2] Among pre-K-12 parents, a quarter are concerned about this happening in the future, leaving 74 percent not concerned about it.
No one group has broad trust to determine what books are age appropriate. Roughly half of Americans have a great deal or good amount of trust in librarians and teachers to do this; fewer say so about principals, parents, district leaders, the state government or non-parents.

Who supports book restriction efforts?

Ideology is a major factor in attitudes on the issue. Support for restricting students’ access to books is highest among people who identify themselves as conservatives. Indeed, while conservatives account for 29 percent of all adults, they make up 57 percent of book restriction supporters.
Support for book restrictions in the public schools also reaches majorities among more-conservative groups such as white evangelical Protestants, Republicans and parents with children in private, religious or homeschool settings.
Underlying attitudes are involved. Conservatives are less likely than other people to think that books in public schools adequately represent conservative political views. They also are less confident in schools’ handling of topics including moral values, gender and sexuality, religious beliefs and political views. And they are particularly opposed to the availability of books that discuss topics such as non-traditional gender identities and sexual orientation.

Who opposes book restriction efforts?

Opposition to book restrictions peaks among liberals, Democrats and LGBTQ adults. It is modestly higher among four-year college graduates, moderates and Black people compared with all adults.
Opposing book restrictions is strongly related to views on free expression and individual thinking. Large majorities of Americans say children should develop their own political opinions, moral values and religious beliefs, rather than adopting their parents’ points of view. More than half also think that book restriction efforts threaten students’ freedom of expression. Those holding these views are highly opposed to book restriction efforts.
Views among public school parents show the issue’s complexity. These parents are broadly confident in their public schools to select appropriate books, and most (59 percent) oppose book restriction efforts. Still, that is 8 points lower than the level of opposition to book restriction efforts among non-parents, 67 percent.

Nearly all adults think public school parents should be able to challenge books, but there is concern about potential chilling effects in book selection.

Nine in 10 think any public school parent should be able to submit a book complaint to their local district. However, three-quarters also think an investigation should occur only after multiple complaints are received.
About six in 10 also are concerned that fear of complaints might deter public school districts from purchasing books with educational value.
About two-thirds think public school teachers and librarians should have substantial say in deciding what books are available; 57 percent say the same about pre-K-12 parents. In contrast, just about two in 10 say so about their state government or community members who are not pre-K-12 parents.

About this study

Results presented in this report are from a national survey of 4,567 adults, including 1,138 pre-K-12 parents, conducted Feb. 29-March 10, 2024, via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel®, with design, management and analysis by Langer Research Associates. Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points for the full sample. As in all surveys, error margins are larger for subgroups.

In addition to the full report, a supplemental report provides topline data, a detailed methodology statement and a desk review of prior research.

[1] See Meehan, K., Baêta, S., Markham, M., & Magnusson, T. (2024). Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis. PEN America. https://pen.org/report/narrating-the-crisis/

[2] We define “reading-age children” as K-12 students, excluding those in pre-K.