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On Oct. 13, about a month after a Texas law went into effect prohibiting “harmful,” “indecent” or “profane” school library books, New Braunfels Independent School District’s Board of Trustees shut down its secondary school libraries “effective immediately.”
The district’s temporary suspension of middle and high school library services — which it reversed after public outcry — came as part of a comprehensive review of materials that included more than 195,000 books and resources.
“NBISD administration is allocating resources to expedite the review process and ensure secondary libraries are accessible to students again as quickly as possible,” the board said in an announcement in response to Texas’ SB 13 taking effect.
Those resources used to review the materials would ultimately include artificial intelligence software, which districts like New Braunfels ISD and many others are leaning on to comply with restricting curriculum laws — marking a new and controversial development in a years-long push by Republican states and lawmakers to pull books they say are divisive, indecent, profane or pornographic off of shelves.
As a result, what began as a parental rights movement, with grassroots right-leaning organizations like Moms for Liberty advocating for their right to protect children from materials they deem offensive, has led to wholesale overhauls of school libraries and curricula in some places. Efforts that initially targeted certain LGBTQ+ and race-related content, especially when geared toward younger children, have now expanded beyond those materials.
In New Braunfels, the district has so far removed, restricted, or aged-up around 1,500 books from its school libraries — mostly in its secondary schools — since June 1, according to an internal log from the district. The log was made available through a public records request filed by Texas Freedom to Read Project, which the organization shared with K-12 Dive.
The district has reviewed or will review over 3,000 books using AI, the records show. Texts reviewed include those by historical figures such as former U.S. Representative John Lewis and Ruby Bridges, and by classical authors like William Shakespeare and Zora Neale Hurston. Books by or about contemporary figures such as singer Taylor Swift and actor Matthew McConaughey also made the list.
For high schoolers, the list of pulled books includes memoirs by former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and Muhammad Ali, as well as three titles by Jane Austen.
“Since SB13 was put into law, NBISD has been reviewing its collection of books to ensure compliance,” said Michelle Harwood, spokesperson for NBISD, in an email to K-12 Dive. “Books are initially flagged by both internal review tools and third-party vendor resources that identify titles that may require additional evaluation.”
Measures like New Braunfels ISD’s, however, are worrying free speech and education advocates, who say the use of AI is changing the nature of book restrictions.
“We just see the way that the book banning movement continues to escalate,” said Kasey Meehan, director of Freedom to Read at the free speech advocacy organization PEN America. “And certainly, we also raise concerns and cautions around the use of generative AI as a tool for making these decisions about what is and is not appropriate for schools.”
Proliferating state laws impact district compliance measures
Approximately 30 states have adopted legislation, orders, statements, or other policies prohibiting or denouncing race- or sex-related issues, according to the CRT Forward Tracking Project at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program. Many additional districts and localities have also adopted their own policies, according to the database.
However, that database stopped its collection in 2024. Since then, states such as Texas have continued to pass new measures.
Texas’ SB 13, which took effect Sep. 1, increased parental oversight of school library materials, requiring school boards to approve books and suggesting the creation of local library advisory councils to assist in doing so. The law mandates a 30-day public review for new books, allows parents to restrict their children’s access, and requires the removal of “harmful,” “indecent” or “profane” material based on local community values or age-appropriateness.
The state has the third-highest number of books banned since 2022 at the district level at over 3,700, topped by Iowa at nearly 3,800 and Florida at over 8,800, according to data from data research and analysis group World Population Review.
The extent to which students’ access to books is regulated varies not only by state, but by district — where policies are scattered across a spectrum of compliance that ranges from next to zero book reviews on one end to overhauling libraries on the other, according to Meehan.
This spectrum of compliance is emerging as lawsuits challenge what plaintiffs claim are “vagueness” in the laws, hoping to guardrail or entirely stop curriculum restrictions on race- and sex-related issues that are creating uncertainty for districts.
For example, one Texas district — in seeking to comply with a state law prohibiting sexually explicit material in schools — banned the Bible as part of “a comprehensive review of library materials” and later returned it to shelves after public outcry and clarification from a state lawmaker.
It’s amid this uncertainty — and the additional administrative work accompanying book removals — that districts are turning to AI.
Pros and cons of automated book-flagging
Bookmarked, one software provider currently working with at least 150 school districts in Texas, according to CEO Steve Wandler. On its website, the company markets itself as technology that helps school staff manage “10,000+ titles, new compliance laws, classroom libraries nobody can track.”
The company’s services cost districts $2 to $3 per student annually.
“We went down that path of talking to school districts and figuring out: What is their problem, and how do we solve that? And how do we give them time back to be able to do the things that they need to be doing?” said Wandler.
While freedom of speech advocates warn against automated decision-making, Wandler said Bookmarked’s technology just automates the research into which books may be noncompliant, flagging them for staff and leaving the ultimate decision of which books remain on shelves to educators.
The automated book flags, however, aren’t based on content that may be “profane” or “vulgar” — in fact, Bookmarked’s technology conducts no searches of the context or content of the books themselves, Wandler said.
Instead, the current version compares book titles against available online information — such as a book receiving negative social media feedback or publicity — or circulated lists of banned books from other districts, organizations like Moms for Liberty, and PEN America.
Librarians are aware of who are the loud voices out there.
Steve Wandler
Bookmarked CEO
When asked whether this would lend itself to a tunnel vision of sorts for districts — in which the same books are routinely removed based on public opinion and pre-existing lists rather than parental feedback and content-based decision making — Wandler said he shares those concerns.
“Librarians are aware of who are the loud voices out there,” he said, adding that Bookmarked’s current data is partly based on “hearsay” and opinion. “We’re just showing them the data.”
The company aims to release a new version of its software in August with copyright ability that would allow it to instead flag books based on content, and to also serve as a database of which books other districts have banned.
A ‘no-win situation’ for districts
AI companies like Bookmarked are marketing their technology at the same time public education and free speech advocates say superintendents and librarians are fearful of noncompliance with complex, sometimes vague and evolving state laws.
As early as 2023, an Iowa district reportedly used ChatGPT to narrow down books that contained “a description or visual depiction of a sex act.” In that case, ChatGPT wrongly identified three books, according to an overview of the incident by The Brennan Center for Justice, which opposes the use of AI to implement book restrictions.
“I think there’s fear from superintendents and from principals that they’ll lose their jobs if there’s lots of battles around book bans happening in their district,” said Meehan. “So best to just, like, get the books off the shelves and kind of remove any obstacles.”
Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators, said many superintendents are getting pushback regardless of whether they take a book off the shelf — sandwiched between pro- and anti-book banners.
“If you’re a school leader right now, you are being scrutinized by everyone, and you are in a no-win situation on these decisions,” said Brown. “The bottom line is that superintendents want to educate the kids but often get distracted by adult issues and politics.”
Wandler is aware that his company is taking stage amid a controversial backdrop.
“We want to be Switzerland,” he said. “It’s so politically charged —- we’re just trying to be able to protect books, protect literature, and allow people to read what they want to read.”
Wandler’s company launched just about six months before the passage of the Texas law that has created additional administrative work for superintendents and librarians — an issue Bookmarked seeks to address.
Education lobbyist and consulting group Moak Casey, which Wandler says has equity in Bookmarked, has also financially backed right-leaning lawmakers who have pushed curriculum restrictions — including state Rep. Angela Paxton, who authored SB13, and Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed it into law, according to public records. The bill died during the 2023-24 Texas legislature but was ultimately passed during the 2025-26 legislative session.
During 2023 testimony before state lawmakers, Wandler spoke favorably of SB 13, which he said would “empower parental access” and “mandates accountability for the school districts” of Texas. During that testimony, Wandler said his company aims to help districts get ahead of book ban disputes by flagging titles that could be called into question, and also allowing parents to identify titles in advance that their children can’t bring home.
“Our viewpoint is if we win Texas, we win the country,” Wandler told K-12 Dive of his work with Texas districts since the bill’s passage. “If we can solve it in Texas, we can solve it in the other states.”
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