Enacts the student journalist education act to protect student speech at educational institutions unless such speech is libelous, an invasion of privacy, or incites students to commit an unlawful act, violate school policies, or to materially and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the school.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8064
SPONSOR: Lupardo (MS) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the student
journalism education act
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This legislation supports the practice of high school student journalism
by emphasizing the importance of ethical and responsible news reporting.
Work on school-sponsored newspapers (print or digital) encourages the
development of critical thinking skills, media information literacy, and
team building. As a result, students will be a position to provide
trustworthy news to their peers.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: The education law is amended by adding a new article 18 which
would be referred to as the "student journalism education act". Article
18 contains definitions, student journalism education principals,
exemptions, and liability.
Section 2: Establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
We live in a time when media information literacy is in short supply.
Students often get their news from unreliable and sometimes dangerous
sources. The Student Journalism Education Act aims to provide a frame-
work for the practice of ethical and responsible journalism in a public
high school setting. This will significantly benefit serious student
writers and provide journalistic standards for students on what respon-
sible news reporting requires. Student publications would be overseen by
a student-media advisor who acts to ensure that news stories meet the
highest standard of journalistic ethics; they are not there for the
purpose of censorship. One of the difficulties with passing this legis-
lation has been the assumption by many school districts that a student-
run publication would be inherently disruptive. Schools we have studies
have had the opposite experience; where civic participation is encour-
aged, and students are more responsible and better engaged citizens.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Formerly A-4402 of 2022-23, died in the Education Committee.
Formerly A-1345 of 2023-24, died in the Education Committee.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
This legislation will have no fiscal implications for State or local
government.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8064
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 22, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. LUPARDO, STIRPE, GLICK, ROZIC, PAULIN, MAGNAREL-
LI, LAVINE, OTIS, CLARK, ROSENTHAL, SIMON, McDONALD, COLTON, HEVESI,
EPSTEIN, FORREST, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, HUNTER, LEVENBERG, MAMDANI,
MITAYNES, RAGA, REYES, SEAWRIGHT, SEPTIMO, SHIMSKY, SHRESTHA, SIMONE,
STECK, TAYLOR, LUNSFORD, ANGELINO, BEEPHAN, BROOK-KRASNY, DeSTEFANO,
DiPIETRO, DURSO, GALLAHAN, GANDOLFO, HAWLEY, MIKULIN, MILLER, NOVAK-
HOV, PALMESANO, PIROZZOLO, RA, SEMPOLINSKI, WALSH, McDONOUGH, BLANKEN-
BUSH -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. COOK, GIGLIO, RAMOS -- read
once and referred to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the student
journalism education act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new article 18 to
2 read as follows:
3 ARTICLE 18
4 STUDENT JOURNALISM EDUCATION ACT
5 Section 860. Short title.
6 861. Definitions.
7 862. Student journalism education principals.
8 863. Exemptions.
9 864. Liability.
10 § 860. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as
11 the "student journalism education act".
12 § 861. Definitions. For the purposes of this article the following
13 terms shall have the following meanings:
14 1. "Educational institution" means a public high school.
15 2. "School-sponsored media" means any material that is prepared, writ-
16 ten, published, or broadcast by a student journalist at an educational
17 institution, distributed or generally made available to members of the
18 student body, and prepared under the direction of a student media advi-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00278-02-5
A. 8064 2
1 sor. "School-sponsored media" shall not include media intended for
2 distribution or transmission solely in the classroom in which the media
3 is produced.
4 3. "Student journalist" means a student enrolled in an educational
5 institution who gathers, compiles, writes, edits, photographs, records,
6 or prepares information for dissemination in school-sponsored media.
7 4. "Student media advisor" means an individual employed, appointed, or
8 designated by an educational institution to supervise or provide
9 instruction relating to school-sponsored media.
10 § 862. Student journalism education principals. 1. Except as other-
11 wise provided in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, a
12 student journalist shall have the right to exercise free speech and of
13 the press in school-sponsored media, regardless of whether the media is
14 supported financially by the educational institution or by use of the
15 facilities of an educational institution or produced in conjunction with
16 a class in which the student is enrolled.
17 2. Subject to section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, the
18 appropriate student journalist shall be responsible for determining the
19 news, opinion, and feature content of school-sponsored media.
20 3. Nothing in this section shall preclude a student media advisor from
21 teaching professional standards of English and journalism to student
22 journalists or from grading the performance of a student in accordance
23 with such standards.
24 4. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official
25 publications of an educational institution except for the material
26 described in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article.
27 5. Educational institution administrators shall have the burden of
28 demonstrating justification without undue delay prior to a limitation of
29 student expression under this article.
30 6. No student media advisor or employee shall be dismissed, suspended,
31 disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against
32 solely for acting to protect a pupil engaged in the conduct authorized
33 under this article; and further no student media advisor or employee
34 shall be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred or
35 otherwise retaliated against solely for an action, undertaken in good
36 faith with this article, which results in the prohibition of the publi-
37 cation of speech pursuant to this article.
38 7. Political expression by students in school-sponsored media shall
39 not be deemed the use of public funds for political purposes.
40 § 863. Exemptions. Nothing in this article shall impose a duty on
41 educational institution administrators to review school-sponsored media
42 prior to publication. To the extent that an educational institution
43 administrator chooses to engage in pre-publication review, the follow-
44 ing forms of expression shall not be protected by this article:
45 1. Expression that is libelous, slanderous or obscene;
46 2. Expression that constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy;
47 3. Expression that violates federal or state law; or
48 4. Expression that incites students to commit an unlawful act where
49 such unlawful act would be both imminent and likely to occur, to
50 violate the policies of the educational institution, or to materially
51 and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of such educational
52 institution.
53 § 864. Liability. No expression made by students in the exercise of
54 free speech or freedom of the press protected by this article shall be
55 deemed to be an expression of policy, opinion or position of the educa-
56 tional institution, nor shall any such expression be considered to be an
A. 8064 3
1 endorsement in any way by the educational institution and no educational
2 institution, student media advisor, employee, parent, legal guardian or
3 administrator of an educational institution shall be held liable in any
4 civil or criminal action for any expression made or published by
5 students, except in cases of willful or wanton misconduct. Nothing in
6 this section shall be construed to create any private action on behalf
7 of a student other than to seek injunctive relief allowing the publica-
8 tion of the speech in question.
9 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
