The Federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools that receive federal funding to provide military recruiters with the names, addresses and phone numbers of Junior and Senior year students, early each school year, unless parents have opted to not have that information given out.

High schools, under this provision, must allow recruiters to have the same access to campuses as have colleges. An organization has been formed to specifically counter this requirement. Leave My Child Alone calls it "a creepy warm-up to the Draft.' On the other hand, Don Rumsfeld [see the box, below] argues for encouraging military recruitment of the kids since "this may be the best opportunity they have to get a college education."

Charlottesville High School informs families about this requirement, and offers them the option for their child to not be included. Families choosing to opt out are given a phone number to call.

Last fall, Bobby Thompson, then Deputy Superintendent for Administration in the Charlottesville City Schools (now Acting Co-Superintendent) told us that the letters were sent to families of Juniors and Seniors in early September, with a deadline for responses of September 30. Says Thompson, "Actually, we have always been asked to provide this information to the military, and now NCLB adds sanctions for schools not complying." He tells us that the count is not exact, but about 90 families out of 550 declined, and a substantial number did not respond to the letter. By not responding, the assumption is that they have not opted out.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has drafted sample documents for schools to use, and suggests that the option should work in the opposite way -- not returning the letter means that the family has not given permission to have the information released.

Albemarle County public schools have been less specific: here's an email note from Cathy Eberly (May 23, 2005), Communications Coordinator for the Albemarle County Public Schools:

We distribute to parents each summer, via our School Talk publication, a list of the types of student information that can be released to the public and we give them 15 days to notify us in writing if they do not want information released.

We do not, however, include a list of the types of organizations that can get this information ( including colleges, universities, and military recruiters), and I imagine a lot of parents are not aware that their child's information is released in this way.

But our inquiry has apparently caused some rethinking of the policy. Cathy Eberly goes on to say,

Based on your request, Diane Behrens, executive director of support services, is taking this up with our high school principals so they can be involved in developing a better way to educate parents about who will potentially be receiving directory information on their kids.

And on May 26, she told us that

... AHS [Albemarle High School] have taken it upon themselves to create a letter to parents specifically asking them if they want to opt out of providing their students' info to military recruiters

That will be a good thing. (Dave Sagarin, June 1, 2005)

Editor's Note: See also, Iraq War stirs debate over use of Draft.

Here's the joint view of the United States Department of Education and the Department of Defense on the importance of schools transmitting this information: