23 SEPTEMBER 2005
Students Themselves May Opt Out, US Dept. of Ed. Confirms

The United States Department of Education has issued an email opinion agreeing that student opt outs must be respected unless (for a minor) overruled by a parent.

The DOE's Family Privacy Compliance Office sent the email in response to an inquiry by a counterrecruitment activist and then confirmed the information at a later time.

That NCLB allows for a student opt-out comes as no surprise to New York City, where students have been allowed to opt out of the military recruiting databases for themselves for the past three years. New York recently instituted a policy whereby students may fill out their opt-out forms instantly in class and turn them in immediately. A form is also sent home to the parents.

The opportunity for students to fill out forms in class can transform the "opt out" into a meaningful choice. The NYCLU has previously objected to the parental opt out it because it meant that huge numbers of students were involuntarily kept on the recruiting lists by default when opt out forms never made it home or, if they did, were ignored.

Read the NYCLU's memo to school districts, or the email in which the Family Privacy Compliance Office confirmed that student opt-outs must be respected.

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