Which States May Pass New Voices in 2025

Pennsylvania is making significant strides in its pursuit of New Voices legislation. It joins five other states with active bills in their state legislatures.

As states gear up for their legislative sessions, a handful of New Voices teams have introduced (or reintroduced) bills to protect student journalists’ free speech rights. 

Eighteen states have passed New Voices legislation. Who will be next?

I worked with John Tagliareni, the Garden State Scholastic Press Association, the Student Press Law Center, and others to pass New Voices in New Jersey in 2021. Since then, Hawaii (2022), West Virginia (2023), and Minnesota (2024) have joined the growing list of states that protect student journalists. In this post, I’ll profile Pennsylvania and provide an update on the other states that have introduced bills this year.

Pennsylvania is hoping this is the year

This is Pennsylvania’s eighth year working on New Voices legislation. Aaron Fitzpatrick is a journalism teacher at Freedom Area High School, advising the newspaper, yearbook, and broadcast program, and has worked to pass this legislation since the beginning. 

Before he became adviser, student journalists at Freedom Area High School were having trouble getting permission to take photos in a teacher’s classroom for the yearbook. After he had become adviser, some of his students hesitated to approach this same faculty member. So Fitzpatrick began exploring ways he could support his students and maintain professional working relationships with his colleagues. 

This led Fitzpatrick to the Student Press Law Center and its model policy for high school student media. He shared the policy with some of his editors, and they worked to make changes to fit their program. The students met with the principal, superintendent, district solicitor, and school board’s policy committee. About a year later, the new district policy was adopted. Fitzpatrick noted that much of the language in that policy mirrors Pennsylvania’s current New Voices bill.

He first became aware of New Voices after joining the Pennsylvania School Press Association, which he now leads as president. Kate Plows, a fellow PSPA board member, put Fitzpatrick in touch with Cyndi Crothers-Hyatt from Conestoga High School, who was interested in New Voices, too. Together, they began to work on building a supportive coalition and taking the first steps towards drafting a bill.

Fitzpatrick is passionate about New Voices, even though his school has supported student journalism and the publications he advises haven’t experienced censorship.

 “I’m not involved with New Voices solely because of issues we or anyone else have already faced but rather to safeguard the future and prevent new issues from developing,” he said.

The issue Fitzpatrick notices most frequently is student self-censorship.

“Students aren’t used to pushing the envelope,” he said. “They don’t want that to reflect on them or put their advisers in difficult situations. It’s easier to live your life without the conflict.” 

But at the same time, Fitzpatrick emphasized students’ responsibility to cover topics that matter to readers. 

“There isn’t anyone who has the access [that students do] to tell the story,” he said. “If not them, then who?”

Recent Challenges

Pennsylvania has had several New Voices bills before HB806 was introduced in early March. They had a House and Senate bill and their first hearing last year. But none of those bills made it out of the Education Committee. This is common and something we also experienced in New Jersey multiple times.

Although New Voices is a bipartisan bill–both parties believe strongly in free speech for students–sometimes the bill’s sponsors can scare legislators from the other side of the aisle. Such is the nature of politics today.

Student Press Law Center Advocacy Associate Grayson Marlow noticed this as a change in the past few years.

“Politically, I think we’re in a very partisan time, right? It’s not a Democrat or conservative or Republican or Liberal issue; it’s a constitutional issue. It’s an education issue,” he said. “But what we are seeing is that depending on who our lead sponsor is, and depending on who might be in the majority in the state, and especially in states that have such slim majorities, like Pennsylvania, that can have a very real and tangible effect on the New Voices bill.”

This hyper-partisan environment requires the PA team to be more strategic as they seek primary cosponsors for their senate bill. Democratic Senator Carolyn Comitta sponsored last year’s bill and has agreed to do so again, but Fitzpatrick knows they need to have a Republican cosponsor right out of the gate. 

“Hopefully, that will give his colleagues permission to sign on,” he said. “The biggest hurdle has been to make sure that this nonpartisan bill is explained so that it appears as such.”

Marlow has seen how political hot-button issues can also present a challenge. A few years ago, it was Black Lives Matter, followed by controversies over Critical Race Theory, pronoun bills, and more recently, the student protests on college campuses.

“Oftentimes, those types of things are being censored,” Marlow said. “Students aren’t necessarily allowed to talk about those topics, but legislators are actively engaging in how students should be talking about those things, or shouldn’t be talking about those things in some cases. It can make New Voices legislation a little hard, but it can also get a lot of outstanding supporters.”

Support has been key

It’s one of the many things Fitzpatrick has learned in his eight years working on New Voices legislation. In college, Fitzpatrick minored in political science and worked on political campaigns, but navigating the political obstacles to passing a bill is difficult to prepare for. 

However, the process has enabled him to work with incredible people and connect with other schools. He and the PSPA have partnered with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the SPLC and are working with the PA School Board Association and the Pennsylvania Superintendents Association.

Students play a crucial role in this process. 

“Students get an immediate response,” Fitzpatrick said. “Legislators want to hear from their young constituents and get them involved in the process.” 

In the eight years that Fitzpatrick has been working on New Voices, he has also seen the impact advocacy has had on students.

“It truly has been eye-opening for students to see the impact they can have on democracy,” he said. “Before a lot of them could vote, they had an impact on the process and were working with legislators. Some of the students even ended up interning with the legislators they worked with.”

Staying motivated

While students inevitably move on, they still check in with Fitzpatrick on bills’ progress. It’s one of the things that keeps him motivated. 

“There have always been new students and new people that push you to keep going. It makes you realize how broad a coalition this could benefit,” he said. “It’s especially important in an era where local news organizations can’t cover our schools the way our students can.”

Grayson Marlow noted that when students are given editorial control of their publications, they practice critical thinking and learn first-hand about civics and their First Amendment rights.

“Students are more free to talk about the things that are important to them and their community,” he said. “I think the famous line is, ‘today’s new voices are tomorrow’s leaders,’ and we can’t afford to censor them. And usually that’s what legislators buy into.” 

A strong bill

Pennsylvania’s New Voices bill has stronger protections than many that have been enacted. It prevents administrative prior review and doesn’t focus the protection on just high school students, essentially making it a K-12 bill. It also protects both public and private school students. If passed, this bill would be the third to cover private schools–Rhode Island and California currently do. 

Marlow said the SPLC’s strategy is to introduce the strongest protections they can.

“If PA was able to pass this bill as is, it would certainly be up there as one of our stronger bills,” he said.

What other states have introduced

Illinois is already a New Voices state but has introduced bill HB2932 to allow students or advisers to sue a school district to enforce the rights of students to publish. The bill also adds protections for advisers so they can’t be disciplined for supporting the rights the New Voices law granted their students.

“What we have seen since the passage of Illinois’ law is that student media advisers are being asked to choose between stifling their student’s protected expression or risk retaliation for refusing to wrongfully censor publications that administrators don’t like,” Marlow said.

Six other states have introduced (or reintroduced) a New Voices bill this year. A summary with links to the bills and more information appears below:

• Arizona passed a New Voices bill in both the senate and house in 2017, but Governor Ducey vetoed it. With a new governor, Senate Bill SB1196 was introduced in January. It has had two readings. It covers public high school and college students and protects advisers from retaliation for supporting their students’ protected rights. 
• Connecticut introduced two bills concerning students’ political and religious speech. HB5313 and HB6199 protect students’ political and religious speech at public schools, colleges, and universities, and in the student press. The New Voices team hopes to add language that offers the protections the SPLC’s model policy includes.
• Kentucky’s Senate Bill 40 protects public high school students. It also protects their advisers from retaliation for supporting their students’ protected rights. Kentucky’s bill provides for students or advisers to take the school district to court to force them to allow publication. Kentucky has been attempting to pass legislation protecting student journalists since 1990. Unfortunately, their legislation session has ended, and the bill is still in committee.
• Missouri introduced SB 258– the “Cronkite New Voices Act,” which protects student journalists at public high schools and public colleges. It prevents districts from disciplining advisers for supporting the rights of their students.
• New York introduced Senate Bill S68, known as the Student Journalist Free Speech Act. It protects student journalists in public high schools and their advisers from retaliation.
• Texas’ House Bill HB4821 was introduced on March 13. It protects students in public schools and protects their advisers from retaliation. It also allows students or advisers to take the school district to court to force them to allow publication.

Who will be next?

Marlow believes states with longer sessions, like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, automatically have a leg up. It also helps if the bills are being reintroduced from the last session so that they have carry-over momentum. However, there are always states that speed through the legislative process unexpectedly. 

“I did not think West Virginia was going to pass when it did,” Marlow said. “I was saying, ‘they’re not going to vote on it, they’re not going to vote on it.’ And then they did and passed it, and then it was signed into law. We even thought that the governor at the time wouldn’t have signed it into law, but he did as well, and that was really a shock and surprise.” 

New Voices is for everyone

The Student Press Law Center is always looking for new organizations to partner with and will work with anyone interested in joining New Voices. You can reach out to the SPLC at newvoices@splc.org. They also host this informational webpage and run the New Voices Student Leaders Institute in the summer to train volunteers on advocating for legislation in their state.

“This is an issue that I think everyone can get involved in and care about,” Marlow said. “And again, it’s a nice little story to tell in a time that is a little politically uncertain.”

Fitzpatrick also realizes how important it is for those impacted by New Voices to get involved in the legislative process.

“This bill, in general, will not pass without the support of students and advisers like you,” he said. “You don’t need to have experience or have an interest in politics. There are roles for everybody in our group. We will gladly talk to any one of them and grow our coalition. And make this eighth year, the year this bill finally becomes law.”