A Student Press Law Center analysis this fall found that many school districts in Iowa and West Virginia fail to fully comply with state laws protecting student journalists’ rights, leaving them vulnerable to censorship despite legal safeguards.
The two states are among 18 with New Voices laws, which prohibit the censorship of student journalists by school officials except in certain, narrow circumstances. Some of the laws — including those in both Iowa and West Virginia — also prohibit administrators from penalizing advisers for refusing to infringe on their students’ free press rights.
Both state laws also require school districts to adopt policies that reflect these rights and create procedures for implementing them — an important step in ensuring the laws work in practice. This fall, the Student Press Law Center examined these policies as part of our efforts to ensure robust implementation of New Voices laws across the country.
“Passing a New Voices law is just the first step to protect student press freedom in each state. The real test is whether districts follow through,” SPLC Advocacy Associate Grayson Marlow said. “Student journalists must have their rights protected in practice and not just on paper, which is why the Student Press Law Center scrutinizes school districts so closely.”
Iowa
Iowa has one of the oldest New Voices laws in the country, passed in 1989, but many of the state’s school districts lack policies that fully comply with the law’s requirements.
An SPLC review of 50 randomly selected districts — among Iowa’s 325 — showed that only half had student media policies that were fully compliant with the state law. More than a third of the districts had policies that did not acknowledge adviser protections, which were added to the state’s law in 2021.
“Advisers are the backbone of a strong student media program, and administrators often pressure them and even fire them as a way to silence reporting they don’t like,” Marlow said. “This indirect censorship undermines the legislature’s goal with the New Voices law, and it is why SPLC advocates for including adviser protections in the laws and district policies. If districts leave adviser rights out of their policies, they’re leaving the law half-implemented.”
West Virginia
Of West Virginia’s 55 school districts, SPLC’s analysis found that only 44% had student media policies fully compliant with the two-year-old New Voices law. A quarter of districts’ policies did not incorporate adviser protections, while 22% had other serious issues that contradict the law.
West Virginia became the 17th state to pass New Voices legislation in 2023.
Some of the noncompliance may be tied to a draft student media policy shared by Neola, a company that provides policy guidance to many school districts in West Virginia.
After the law passed in 2023, Neola provided its members with an updated draft policy that did not reference the law’s protections for advisers. After the Student Press Law Center raised concerns, however, Neola revised its draft policy in 2024 to include those protections.
As this school year started, only 15 of 33 Neola-member districts’ student media policies included adviser protections.
SPLC’s efforts to promote New Voices laws
The New Voices movement has seen impressive success over the past decade, with 11 new states guaranteeing press freedom to millions of students since North Dakota kick-started momentum in 2015.
With these new laws, the Student Press Law Center has grown our efforts to ensure they have a meaningful impact on the students they are meant to protect. This includes creating new educational resources, auditing and advocating for strong district policies and calling out school administrators who violate the law.
Last school year, we partnered with West Virginia University to create an innovative internship-classroom experience for two students to learn the fundamentals of press law and to audit district policies in the state. As a direct result of those students’ outreach efforts, three districts adopted policies protecting student press freedom.
Emily Hughes Corio, director of WVU’s Reed School of Media & Communications, said it was an opportunity for her students to gain hands-on experience in both the law and advocacy.
“They are applying this work directly by educating other student journalists in West Virginia and through their own reporting,” Corio said. “It is a perfect blend of education and advocacy for a great cause — student journalism.”
That experience continued this fall with staff attorney Jonathan Gaston-Falk working with two students from WVU and two from the University of Iowa. In a shared virtual class, the four students are learning about media law and the New Voices movement from SPLC staff, and they will work with several school districts on their student media policies.
“Student journalists are often the first to cover stories that matter in their schools and communities,” Gaston-Falk said. “When districts don’t fully implement New Voices protections, they’re not just violating the law — they’re silencing young people whose voices matter.”
Learn more about the laws in our Guide to Iowa’s Student Free Expression Law and our Guide to West Virginia’s Student Journalism Press Freedom Protection Act. SPLC also provides a School District Advocacy Toolkit and a model district policy to help students, advisers and administrators create or improve the student media policy in their school district. If you have questions about your district policy, you can contact the free SPLC Legal Hotline.
This report is based on research initially completed by former SPLC intern Hannah Kupferwasser.
The Student Press Law Center is the nation’s only legal organization devoted exclusively to defending and advancing the free press rights of student journalists. Since 1974, we have helped students and their educators navigate the law, strengthen their reporting and stand up for press freedom. Our legal support, education and advocacy empower student journalists to report freely and courageously. Stay updated by subscribing at splc.org/newsletter.