Students and Recruiting
How Do Students Get
Recruited?
In the US, public schools are frequent targets of military advertising, military youth programs, and visits by military recruiters. The No Child Left Behind Act guarantees recruiters the right to private contact information for all secondary school students, so that students may also be contacted at home. Many school administrators and teachers are unaware of, or turn a blind eye to recruiter abuses of their privileges.
Recruiters employ a variety of ways to get personal contact information, including student lists from schools, JROTC, a centralized DOD recruiting database made up of bought lists and information gathered by the government, the ASVAB test and other standardized tests like the SATs.
I don't want my child contacted by military recruiters. What can I do?
OPT-OUT
By opting-out you can reduce the chance of personal contact information falling into the hands of recruiters.
Contact your school to find out how to opt-out of the student lists given to recruiters. Schools are obligated by law to remove your name if you request it. If your school has not developed an opt-out procedure and form, you can try using the generic form (en espaņol) above.
Why You Need to Opt Out
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 contains a little-known provision that threatens the federal funding of any school refusing to turn over all students' personal contact information to military recruiters upon demand. More >
Protect Your Privacy - Oppose JAMRS
The Pentagon has compiled a
database of
private information on
individuals who are of
recruiting age under the Joint Advertising
and
Market Research Studies
(JAMRS) program. This program also tracks
youth attitudes towards
military service and conducts targeted
advertising to increase
recruitment levels. For more information
please visit: http://www.privacycoalition.org/nododdatabase/letter.html
Oppose ASVAB Testing
The ASVAB is the admissions and placement test for the US military. All persons enlisting in the US military are required to take ASVAB. The military claims that it is also a useful tool for determining civilian career placement and promotes its use in schools.
- If you do take the ASVAB and wish to prevent your school from releasing ASVAB scores to the military (along with personal contact information), you can either refuse to take the ASVAB or insist that your school pick option 8 which allows for no release of test information to recruiters (the default is option 1 - no special instructions - which allows recruiters to use the information any way they like). More information on ASVAB >
Defeat JROTC
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) was originally developed under the National Defense Act of 1916 to increase America's military readiness in the face of World War I. The program experienced a rapid expansion in the 1990s, which continues to this day. The courses are taught in high schools by retired military personnel and are a highly successful recruiting and public relations tool for the military.