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Want to keep your child's info private?
High schools can release students' contact information to military recruiters, unless parents opt out.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published August 3, 2006
Many parents may not be aware that since 2002, high schools have been required to provide students' names, telephone numbers and addresses to military recruiters who ask for them under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. 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." If a district fails to provide "directory" information to military recruiters, it can lose federal money. Another provision in the law allows parents and students to request that personal information not be released - in other words, to "opt out." Schools are required under the law to notify parents of their right to request that personal student information remain confidential. Parents who do not want their children to be contacted by military recruiters or by colleges and other groups or individuals offering postsecondary career opportunities must "opt out" by notifying their school districts in writing. Most districts, including Pinellas, have developed a procedure for opting out. A form titled "Directory Information Opt Out Letter" is included in a packet of information given to students at the beginning of the year. The "opt out" form also appears on the district's Web site, www.pinellas.k12.fl.us/. Scroll through the links under the heading "What's New" until you see the link to download the opt out form, "PCS Form 4-3041." On the form, 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 both. Parents can return the form at any point during the school year. But since 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.
[Last modified August 2, 2006, 22:21:48]
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