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The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (you can find the complete text of the NCLB here: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html) contains a provision requiring schools to give students' names, addresses, and phone numbers to military recruiters who request them. The penalty for not disclosing information requested by military recruiters is potential loss of federal funds. The NCLB, however, also gives parents and students the right to "opt out" of the disclosure of this information.

There is some disagreement over whether schools must provide families the option of releasing information to colleges and other organizations while not releasing that information to military recruiters. Some have erroneously claimed that keeping contact information from military recruiters automatically stops contact information from going to colleges and other groups, the so-called "all or nothing" argument. It is the ACLU's position that the law does allow a separate opt-out from military recruitment lists.

A letter (http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/pdf/ht070203.pdf) sent July 2, 2003, to chief state school officers from the U.S. Department of Education noted schools' responsibilities for providing recruiters with student information. The letter also stated: "It is important to note that under the statutes parents may 'opt out' of allowing schools to provide information about their children to military recruiters." In fact, according to an email from the federal Family Policy Compliance Office (see "GOVERNMENT INFORMATION" section below), the law does not require an "all or nothing" policy because a "school may permit parents to 'check off' who may or may not have access to directory information on their child."

In other words, the right to opt out may be exercised selectively by families. It is incorrect to say that disclosure is an "all or nothing" proposition. Families have the right to choose not to make their child's name available to military recruiters, while still making it available to other institutions and organizations (such as colleges).Students and parents must be informed of their opportunity to stop the release of their personal information, according to both the NCLB and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In September 2005, various groups testified to the New Jersey State Board of Education about the need to protect the privacy rights of students in the context of military recruitment.

In order to provide families with meaningful notification of students' privacy rights, school districts should consider that:

The ACLU recognizes that students have the right to investigate the range of post-graduation opportunities available to them. But, the ACLU feels strongly that students should be able to explore those opportunities on their own terms, with their rights to privacy protected.

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