Under State Pressure, Palm Beach County Schools Pull and Review More Than 1,800 Library Books

The School District of Palm Beach County has pulled and is reviewing more than 1,800 library titles, from classic novels such as The Scarlet Letter to nonfiction books about sexual health, even though no parent or resident has filed a formal objection to a school library book there in two years. Public records obtained by WLRN show the audit was launched after a state directive last month pushed districts to remove material before anyone complains.

The review, which covers more than 1,830 unique titles, makes Palm Beach County one of the clearest examples of how a Sept. 23 memo from Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack is reshaping school libraries in districts that had removed few books under the state's complaint-driven process. It is unfolding as the district, which lost more than 6,000 students this year, cuts staff to close a budget gap.

What the state asked for

Mack's memo to superintendents, titled "District Responsibility for the Selection, Review, and Maintenance of School Library and Classroom Materials," criticized what he called "reactive review," according to WLRN and WUSF. Districts, he wrote, should not wait for parents to discover explicit material; they should review their collections continuously. He laid out a recommended 90-day plan for districts to audit their libraries and report the results.

The plan is technically voluntary. "While voluntary, it is a practical sequence I expect districts to execute," Mack wrote, according to WLRN. The commissioner cannot write new law, but he can investigate what he sees as noncompliance and report it to the State Board of Education, which could withhold state funds or make a district ineligible for competitive grants. Mack's letter warned districts of both outcomes.

The directive went further than complaints. It told districts to review any book removed by any county in Florida, books by frequently challenged authors and titles with known passages describing sexual conduct. Fox 13 reported that the memo singled out Hillsborough County as its main example, after parents there returned with objections to additional books.

How Palm Beach is carrying it out

The district compiled a master list of potentially objectionable books, e-materials and videos. Any school media specialist who has one of those works must pull it from student access, review it and sign an attestation justifying whether to keep or remove it. Specialists are also expected to search their own shelves for other titles that might violate state rules, and the district plans unannounced physical and virtual audits at schools each semester.

About 70% of the titles under review are in high schools, and only about a dozen are listed at the elementary level. Titles the district coded "red" were ordered removed on Oct. 9, and "yellow" titles were pulled a week later, WLRN reported, though it is not clear how the two categories were defined. Stephen King is the most-represented author, with 55 titles under review.

Superintendent Mike Burke made the stakes plain in a Sept. 24 letter to principals. "It will behoove you to thoroughly review the correspondence and understand the gravity of the situation as principals will ultimately be held accountable for their school's compliance," he wrote, adding that "we will both be held accountable" by the state board.

In an Oct. 5 email to media specialists, a district employee noted that the master list was not necessarily a "pull all" list and that a book meeting district policy could stay, but advised staff to "always be safe and err on the side of caution," according to WLRN. All data is due by December, and the district plans to finalize an end-of-year review in May.

A district with almost no complaints

Under a 2022 law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, districts must let parents and residents object to library books and must report removals to the state every year. Palm Beach County's objection reports have been blank for the past two years, records show.

Here is what the district's formal objection process produced in recent years, according to WLRN's review of records:

Schools can still remove books at their own discretion outside the formal process. Statewide, the 2025-26 report released last month showed nearly 600 titles removed, and several large districts, including Palm Beach, Orange, Miami-Dade and Broward, reported few or no removals.

Advocates question the cost and the reach

Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, said the directive effectively imports other counties' decisions. A book removed in Clay County, which removed or restricted more than 250 books last year under a four-page policy, now has to be reviewed automatically in Palm Beach, whose policy runs 16 pages and sends complaints through two school-level committees first. By her estimate, about 1,000 of the Palm Beach titles have never been challenged anywhere in Florida but contain references to sexual conduct, many of them nonfiction works on pregnancy, abstinence and abortion.

"I cannot emphasize enough that this is beyond normal, standard practice," Ferrell told WLRN, saying the work takes time and resources away from students.

Mitch Kaplan, founder of the South Florida bookstore chain Books & Books, called the effort "an incredibly venal and vile attack on the right and the freedom to read" and said it goes a step further than what Florida has seen so far.

Members of the district's Academic Advisory Committee, which can help resolve disputes over titles, voiced frustration at an Oct. 12 meeting. Cynthia Kanai, a committee member who said she spent 36 years teaching, told WLRN she recognized restricted titles she used in her own classroom.

Pressure on a shrinking library staff

The audit lands on media specialists at a difficult moment. The district recently eliminated its media clerk position, saving more than $3.3 million but cutting 76 jobs that supported daily library operations. District spokesperson Steven King said there is no estimate of how many staff hours or how much money the review will take.

Chelsie Blankenship, a former Palm Beach County media specialist, said she left for a private school this year after state-mandated trainings and hours of vetting wore her down, and that colleagues who remain are feeling the same strain. Deb Svec, a retired media specialist with nearly 30 years in the district, said librarians statewide are working under "physically unrealistic demands." District presentation materials have reminded employees that violating the state law can carry criminal charges.

Part of a statewide wave

Palm Beach is not alone. Earlier this month, Central Florida districts reported removing more than 300 books as the state ordered them to pull more, and Ferrell said this week she had recorded more than 400 removals in Lake County. In the Panhandle, an appeals court ruled Oct. 21 that Escambia County School Board members can be deposed in the lawsuit over that district's book removals, a case that could test how far districts can go.

What's next

Palm Beach media specialists must finish their attestations and submit data by December, when the district will report to the state under Mack's 90-day timeline. The Academic Advisory Committee may weigh in on disputed titles, and the school board will ultimately face the question of which of the 1,830 titles return to shelves. Statewide, districts that do not follow the commissioner's sequence risk being reported to the State Board of Education, which meets periodically and has the power to sanction districts financially.