1. Can I still join HS Insider if my school isn’t listed on the site or if my school is outside of California?
Yes, you can as long as you have an adviser.

2. Who can act as an adviser?
Typically, students choose their journalism or English teachers as advisers, but an adviser can be any teacher at your school. The time commitment for an adviser is minimal, we just need to have a point of contact at your school. If you are homeschooled, a parent can act as your adviser.

3. Can students who graduated high school be a part of HS Insider?
Yes, they can have their stories published on HS Insider. However, they cannot be part of the Student Advisory Board or the summer internship.

4. How can I get more involved?
We highly encourage students to submit stories to our site. You can also apply for our Student Advisory Board; applications are released every August and December. Our annual Journalism Day conference is every October at CSU Northridge, and we also have virtual events and workshops throughout the year. We’re always open to ideas and project collaborations from students, if you have any proposals you’d like to share you can reach out to rebecca.castillo@latimes.com.

1. How long does it take for a permission slip to be processed?
Permission slips usually take a week to be processed but email us if you have waited longer than that.

2. How do I know if my permission slip has been successfully submitted?
You will get a confirmation sent to your email within 15-20 minutes.

1. What are the necessary elements to include in a story?
All articles must include a headline and excerpt (a one-sentence summary of your story). You must also include a photo that meets our publication requirements and a caption.

2. How long does it take for a story to be published?
Stories can take up to 2 months to be published. If your story is time-sensitive and will lose relevance as time goes on (for example, a breaking news story) please email rebecca.castillo@latimes.com after you submit your story and we will fast-track it.

3. Can I publish stories from my school newspaper to HS Insider or vice versa?
Yes, but only with permission from the instructor of your newspaper program.

4. What type of stories does HS Insider publish?
HS Insider accepts all journalism stories, including news stories, features, opinion pieces, profiles and more. We do not publish poetry or creative writing.

5. How do I know if I successfully submitted an article on WordPress?
Stories marked as “pending review” have been successfully submitted to our team.

6. How can I avoid plagiarism when referencing sources?
Students should put quotations around all information from outside sources and include direct hyperlinks to the articles and sources that are being cited. 

7. Can I use artificial intelligence (AI) to help me write my article or to summarize other sources?
No, HS Insider aims to uplift student voices and develop professional journalism skills through their journalistic work. AI use undermines the integrity of our platform. Using AI to create, generate or modify any content is against our publication policy, and submissions are screened for AI-written content.

8. What is considered using AI?
Any form of content creation or modification that relies on AI algorithms, machine learning, or text generation to produce or alter content is against our publication policy.

9. How can students ensure that their work meets our AI standards?
Primarily, avoid any and all use of AI. Students must rely on their creativity, research skills and journalistic knowledge to write for our platform. This includes practices like conducting original interviews with classmates and community members, gathering firsthand information, and analyzing sources to ensure credibility.