Military Recruiter “Opt Out” Requests due Sept. 15

News Release
Department of Education State of Hawaii

Contact: Sandra Goya
Telephone: 808-586-3232

Date: August 25, 2009

Military Recruiter “Opt Out” Requests due Sept. 15

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires the DOE to provide names, addresses, and telephone numbers (including unlisted numbers) of secondary students to military recruiters when requested. Secondary school students are broadly defined as students enrolled in middle, intermediate, and high schools.

A student in a secondary school can, on his/her own, submit a signed, written request for non-disclosure of his/her information. Or the parent/guardian of a secondary student or an eligible student (18 years or older) can submit an “OPT OUT” request.

Although not legally required, the DOE has developed an “OPT OUT” form for military recruiting to facilitate response from students or their parents. The form can be downloaded from the DOE website at http://doe.k12.hi.us.

If an “OPT OUT” for military recruiters was filed with the school during the 2007-2008 and/or 2008-2009 school year, the most recent request will be honored until the student leaves the Hawaii DOE public school system or until the submitter rescinds the “OPT OUT” request.

“OPT OUT” requests will be accepted at anytime during the school year. However, the DOE is required to turn over a student list to the Inter-Service Recruitment Council (IRC) in mid-October. If a request comes in after student lists have been submitted to the IRC, the DOE Information Resource Management (IRM) Branch will inform the IRC to have recruiters remove the student’s information from the list.

Students or their parents should submit “OPT OUT” requests to school offices no later than September 15. Schools will distribute annual notices by the end of August 2009. For questions, contact the DOE IRM Branch (808) 692-7290, option #5.

-DOE-