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COMMITTEE for
COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT

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Articles: Military Recruiting: Student Privacy

How to dodge military info gatherers

DONNA WINCHESTER, Tampa Bay

August 5, 2007

Since 2002, high schools have been required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to provide students' names, telephone numbers and addresses to military recruiters who ask for them.
The law requires districts to provide military recruiters the "same access to secondary school students as is provided generally to postsecondary education institutions or prospective employers."
That means the district will give your child's name and contact information to military recruiters unless you take advantage of another provision in the law that allows you to request that that personal information not be released.
The opt-out process must be done in writing using a form called a "Directory Information Opt Out Letter," which is included in a packet of information given to students at the beginning of the academic year. The letter must be signed and returned to your child's school.
The opt-out form also appears on the district's Web site, www.pinellas.k12.fl.us. Click on the "Parents" link at the top of the page. Go to the box on the left-hand side of the page and click on "Parent Resources," then click on "Parent Forms." The "Directory Information Opt Out Letter" will be the last form on the page.
Listed under the heading "Part 2" are boxes you can check indicating that you do not want your child's personal information released to military recruiters, to institutions of higher learning, or to either.
You can return the form at any point during the school year. But because student "directory" information is generally turned over to military recruiters early in the year, district officials suggest opt-out letters be returned to the school principal within the first month of school.
The opt-out request is valid only for the school year in which it is received. That means parents who filled out a form last year will need to fill out another form if they still want their child's information kept private.

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