Booksology 
Last year, Utah passed one of the strictest laws related to public school books. House Bill 29 (HB 29) allows parents to challenge books they deem to be “confidential materials” and completely bans books from all public schools in the state if those books are deemed “objectively confidential material” or “pornography” by state law in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools in the state. The bill went into effect on July 1, 2024 and started with 13 titles.
The bill is retroactive, meaning the list includes titles that met state guidelines prior to the bill’s commencement date. Pursuant to HB 29, a public or charter school must notify the State Board of Education whenever it removes books that are considered “confidential material.” If the book meets the criteria for removal, all The school will be notified and expected to be disposed of.
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Currently, 19 books are banned in Utah public schools. Sixteen of these books are written by women, with an average publication date of 2011. That is, most of these books have been on the shelves and available for many years and have not caused any problems until this manufactured crisis. Here is the list:
What’s important to understand about this law is that even though it claims to be about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow decisions made in other school districts. There are 42 public school districts in Utah. two The Davis and Washington school districts account for nearly 80 percent of the books banned statewide. As mentioned above, the Washington School District was instrumental in banning the Usher title.
Perhaps noteworthy, the Davis School District do not have One of the prohibited areas 13 reasons. This is the only book ever to be banned statewide that was not banned by Davis.
In January 2025, the Utah State Board of Education also further clarified the laws that apply to students. Students were not allowed to bring personal or public library copies of state-banned books onto school campuses. The freedom of students to bring these books into the classroom and read them freely was also considered a violation of the law, and the state issued guidance on how local education agencies can approach students who bring any of the 18 books mentioned above to school.
The law’s provisions were changed in July following pushback from First Amendment and free expression groups. Students can now make their own copies of these books and bring them to their school campuses.
Utah will likely add more books to this list as the school year progresses. Whether you can ask about them without having to do any detective work, as is the case with statewide bans. 13 reasons Information regarding the banning of the aforementioned books from the state’s own database is not yet available.
Of course, despite the claims of the federal Department of Education, these books are not the only ones banned in states with book bans. Individual school districts can ban books they deem inappropriate. Of course, this will help add more titles to the state list. Because books only need to be removed in three school districts before they are removed everywhere.
Utah isn’t the only state with a book list like this. South Carolina also maintains an approved list of books that must be removed in all public school districts. The list includes 21 titles, making it the most censorious state when it comes to banning state-sanctioned books. Tennessee has a legal mechanism to enact a statewide school library ban, but has not yet added any titles to the list. Florida officials also distributed a list of books the state deemed inappropriate and needed to be removed from school libraries, although books in Florida are not regulated like the other three states.
These laws do not apply to private or homeschool institutions. That’s intentional.
Utah’s book ban comes in waves, so expect more books to be added to the list in the coming weeks, especially as the state works backwards from the law’s effective date.
