Understanding the Military Recruitment Provisions:
The Link Between NCLB and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The new provision under Title IX of NCLB, known as Section 9528, is inextricably related to a 1974 law entitled the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Section 9528 requires local education agencies that are receiving assistance under NCLB to provide military recruiters or institutions of higher education access to secondary school student’s names, addresses and telephone numbers. The NCLB Act allows military recruiters the same access to schools that college and company recruiters have. A student or parent can request that such information not be released without prior written parental consent. The LEA or private school “shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.” Schools that maintain a religious objection to service in the Armed Forces however, as long as it is verifiable through documents or materials, are an exception to the requirements.

FERPA is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student’s education records, including “directory information”(defined below) about the student. FERPA applies to all schools that receive funds administered by the U.S. Department of Education. It gives parents and eligible students, defined by law as being eighteen years or older, the right to inspect and review the student’s education records kept by the school. Except for certain parties and conditions, schools generally must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student’s education record. Each school decides how they will inform parents. Examples of this notification could include: a letter, an article in the PTA bulletin, inclusion in the student handbook, or newspaper article.