Banned Book Week 2026 - Action Alert
TAKE ACTION FOR BANNED BOOK WEEK 2026
"Protect Students' Freedom to Read in US Public Schools! Take action today and tell your representatives in Congress to oppose H.R. 7661/S. 4925
Defend the freedom to read in US public schools and tell DC politicians to stay out of district decisions that should be made at the local level! When the House and Senate return from their election recess, they could on a censorship bill that would treat high schoolers the same way as kindergarteners and prohibit spending certain federal funds on books, materials and programs while allowing others with similar content. We need your help to ensure it does not pass and that elements of this bill don't show up in other end of year legislation!
What this bill does:
H.R. 7661/S. 4925 would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by restricting the use of federal funds for schools being used for instructional materials and programming that contains “sexually oriented material” as well as “gender dysphoria and transgenderism”, the latter of which is not a real term. It will require schools to use the same standards for kindergartners as they do for high schoolers. Similar bills have passed at the state level in recent years, resulting in a chilling effect across schools and even book bans in their state. This places a huge burden on districts to ensure compliance with these vague restrictions in order to receive federal funds, and will disproportionately impact rural and under-resourced schools and overwhelmingly remove books with LGBTQ+ representation.
This bill is one of several proposals—including H.R. 2616 and H.R. 8705—that raise concerns about students' access to educational materials, federal education funding, classroom instruction, and Washington's role in determining what students can read and learn.
Why this matters:
When public schools are required to comply with vague mandates backed by federal funding penalties, districts predictably adopt the most risk-averse interpretation. The bill's limited exemptions do little to prevent this outcome, relying on restrictive lists of approved “classics” that omit many modern works and diverse authors. Books such as "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison and "In The Night Kitchen" by Maurice Sendak could nevertheless be swept into disputes over compliance. By allowing Congress to dictate what belongs in public classrooms and libraries, the bill displaces local educational decision-making while signaling LGBTQ+ identities are uniquely disfavored. These compliance pressure will fall most heavily on rural and under-resourced districts and are likely to result in the disproportionate removal of books featuring LGBTQ+ representation.
What to do:
Contact your Members of Congress today and urge them to oppose S. 4925 in the Senate / H.R. 7661 in the House and other censorial proposals moving through Congress. To help you get started, we've included a sample letter asking your representative to oppose this legislation. You can personalize the message and share why the freedom to read matters to you by filling out the form below."
Cited: PEN AMERICA
https://act.pen.org/a/take-action-ssca-hr-7661-s-4925?utm_source=eaemail&ms=20261005BBWK_reportemail&utm_medium=20261005bbwk_reportemail&emci=2bf5745d-80be-f111-a6a9-000d3a56d2f7&emdi=c6136645-c9c0-f111-a6a9-000d3a56d2f7&ceid=3122848