Since 1974, the Student Press Law Center has been providing legal information, advice and assistance to student journalists, their advisers and school administrators. Each year we are providing legal help to more than 2,000 individuals.

Of all the information the SPLC provides, our Model Guidelines for Student Publications continue to be among the most requested. First published in the Winter 1978-79 issue of the Student Press Law Center Report, the guidelines have been updated several times over the years with input from attorneys on our staff and elsewhere. They have been endorsed by various scholastic press organizations, including the national Journalism Education Association.

While we have no accurate count of the number of school districts that have actually adopted our Model Guidelines (or used them as a starting point for creating new policies) we do get hundreds of requests for them each year from high schools across the country. We are aware that school districts such as Dade County, Florida, Fairfax County, Virginia, and Baltimore County, Maryland, currently have policies based on our Model Guidelines.

After the Supreme Court's 1988 decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, policies relating to student publications take on a new importance. The Supreme Court has indicated in its decision that if the Hazelwood School District had been operating under a policy that described its student publications as forums for student expression, the Court would not have allowed non-disruptive stories about teen pregnancy and divorce to be censored. Thus a publication policy can be an opportunity for clarifying for both students and school officials their respective rights and responsibilities.

The SPLC's Model Publications Guidelines were drafted with the intention of creating the highest quality student publications and the most responsible student journalists. We hope that they will help you and your school create and support a positive educational environment that recognizes that value and importance of First Amendment rights for the student press. Let us know if you adopt them for your student publication.

We recommend two other resources that are helpful in developing policies for student expression. Both can be obtained through our Web site or by contacting us:

(1) For a more extensive discussion of the rights of student journalists as determined by court decisions, we suggest the SPLC's book, Law of the Student Press.

(2) If you would like to stay on top of current controversies, court rulings and legislative activities that relate to the student press, we encourage you to subscribe to our magazine, the Student Press Law Center Report. A subscription will bring you three issues of the most up-to-date, detailed information about the developing law as it affects student journalism.