A provision in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has resulted in controversy over military recruiters’ access to high school students’ names, addresses and telephone numbers.

The act requires schools receiving federal money to provide this kind of “directory” information to military recruiters, colleges and businesses equally.

Yet the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which was passed in 1974, allows students age 18 or older or the parent of a student under 18 to request that school officials do not release their names, telephone and address to a third party without permission. No Child Left Behind also requires that schools inform parents of this option.

But two years after No Child Left Behind was implemented, many schools and parents do not understand the law, said Oskar Castro, program associate for the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Youth and Militarism program.

Many parents do not realize it is within their legal right to not allow their children’s information to be released, and many schools do not understand that they are required to inform the parents of this right, Castro said.

“What we’re most concerned about,” said Ed Yohnka, director of communications with the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union, “is ensuring school districts give parents ample opportunity to opt out of the process (of allowing their children’s names to be released to third parties).”

This information is often buried in a student handbook and parents either misunderstand the rules or miss them altogether, he said.

“We’d really like to see schools wrestle with how to do this more clearly,” Yohnka said.

He said he believes schools are trying to be efficient in getting the information out, but the issue of a government body sharing information with any outside source requires extra effort to inform parents.

Yohnka proposed parents be presented with the information about opting out “when a live body is there to answer questions,” such as during parent-teacher conferences or registration.

In Champaign County District Four, which includes Central and Centennial High Schools, parents are informed of their right to request their son’s or daughter’s information not be given to recruiters by a parent newsletter that is sent to their homes, said Don Hansen, principal of Champaign Central High School, in an e-mail. Seven to eight families a year request the information not be released, he said.

Hansen added that college and business recruiters do not ask for this kind of information about students.

At Urbana High School, parents are informed of their option to withhold their child’s information either as part of a registration packet or as a stand-alone letter, said Laura Taylor, assistant principal at the school. She said military recruiters request students’ information through the registrar’s office and the information is provided unless a parent returns the letter requesting the information not be released.

She said she had not heard of any parents requesting that their child’s name be removed this year but said she thought a few had last year.

Despite their efforts, Nancy Holm, president of the Champaign Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) Council, said she thinks many parents don’t know about these rules. Holm said even though schools are sending the information out, she worries that the letter explaining the rule may get lost among the mix of registration papers. She said she plans to discuss the matter with PTA presidents at Champaign high schools.

Rep. David Vitter (R-La.), who actively battled for the provisions in the act that allowed military recruiters more access, “felt students should have a complete picture of what their options were after finishing high school,” said Laura Rosche, his press secretary.

She said Vitter was inspired by a May 2000 Associated Press story that quoted a Pentagon spokeswoman as saying approximately 2,000 high schools did not allow military recruiters the same access to students as colleges and private businesses.

Castro still contested the legislation.

“It allows the military recruiters more than equal access,” he said, explaining that employers rarely recruit high school students in the way the military does.

In September, AFSC was one of several groups that participated in a national “opt out” week, which was sponsored by the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth. Participants protested in front of military recruiting stations and handed out leaflets at high schools that contained information about students’ rights not to have their information given to military recruiters, Castro said.

The controversy has “probably caused more ruckus,” said James Antonucci, public affairs officer for Navy recruiting district Chicago.

“Actually, it hasn’t changed the process too much,” Antonucci said.

Private schools have traditionally been more protective than public schools of providing information about students to military recruiters, he said, and the law does not affect schools that do not receive federal funding.