Current Status: Iowa has a New Voices law. The law, passed in 1989, protects students from censorship except in certain narrow circumstances. The law was updated in 2021 to protect advisers from retaliation for refusing to infringe on their students’ rights. Want to further strengthen student press freedom in Iowa? Join the movement by emailing SPLC’s Advocacy and Organizing team at newvoices@splc.org.
Know Your Rights
Who is protected from censorship?
All school-sponsored publications are protected at Iowa’s public schools. This includes newspapers, yearbooks, literary magazines, podcasts, broadcast, and more.
School employees and officials are protected from professional consequences for refusing to censor student media or override their students’ publication decisions.
What work can be censored?
Your work can only be restricted if it:
- Is obscene
- is libelous or slanderous; or
- Encourages students to commit unlawful acts, violate lawful school regulations, or cause the material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.
What happens if I’m being censored?
Try to get any communication from your school in writing, or write down your own memory of events as they happen. Contact the Student Press Law Center immediately.
Join the Movement
- Know your press freedom rights and make sure others do as well. Spread the word about Iowa’s New Voices laws on social media and in your newsroom.
- Look up your school district’s student media or student free expression policy. (You can use this toolkit to help you find it and some examples of red flags to look out for.) If the policy seems like it endorses censorship or doesn’t match the New Voices law, let SPLC know!
- Help your colleagues better understand student press freedom by inviting an SPLC expert to join you: SPLC In The Classroom.
- Advocate for even more student press freedom. Is the law not good enough? Talk with SPLC’s New Voices Advocacy and Organizing Team (newvoices@splc.org) about gaps you see in the law and how we can work to make it stronger.
Recent news
- Iowa, West Virginia districts fall short on student press freedom laws (12/6/2025) - 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.
- SPLC commends Iowa’s recent efforts to extend censorship protections to advisers (5/27/2021) - SPLC commends the recent steps taken by the state of Iowa which enable student publication advisers to guide their students without fear of censorship or disciplinary action.