What information about students can military recruiters get from schools? Are there any exceptions?
Military recruiters can and do approach high schools and ask for lists of students’ names, addresses and telephone numbers, and unless an individual student or parent tells the school in writing that it may not release the student’s information, the school must hand it over. The recruiters’ authority to obtain this information comes from NCLB and NDAA, which require that schools disclose student names, addresses and telephone numbers (sometimes called “directory information”) to the military on request. But these laws also gives students and parents the right to tell the school not to give students’ information to recruiters without “prior parental approval”–in other words, without going back and asking the parent again. The part of NCLB requiring schools to hand over directory information is as follows: [E]ach local educational agency receiving assistance … shall provide, on a request made by military recruiters … access to secondary school students’ names, addresses, and telephone l
