Opting for 'Opt-In'

In the heart of California's traditionally anti-war Bay Area, a stubborn resistance is growing to access to high school students by military recruiters.

The rebellion comes at a time when the U.S. military is simultaneously under pressure to lift sagging enlistment numbers while coming under increasing criticism over its recruitment tactics. U.S. Army officials recently announced a one-day moratorium on recruitment, scheduled for May 20, in order to give recruiters a chance to "focus on how they can do a very tough mission without violating good order and discipline."

But federal officials are warning that any open defiance by school districts to the military recruitment guidelines contained within the 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act will carry severe consequences: the complete loss of federal education funds.

In Alameda County, across the bay from San Francisco, school district officials are braving those consequences by promoting what at first seems like an obscure policy for military access to student records -- "opt-in."

Section 9528 of No Child Left Behind provides that "a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone listing ... not be released [to military recruiters] without prior written parental consent ... ."

When the Santa Cruz City High School District -- some 50 miles south of San Francisco -- was considering how to interpret that clause two years ago, staff attorney Ann Brick of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California wrote to the school board urging them to adopt the "opt-in" policy that "requires a parent's affirmative consent before such information is released to the military. ... The assumption that parents do not object to the release of this information simply because they have not expressed their wishes is very problematic. ... "

According to Dr. Robert Cervantes, the curriculum leadership manager in the California Department of Education, whose duties also include military liaison, the Santa Cruz City School District and 23 other California districts--including San Francisco Unified--adopted the "opt-in" policy around 2003.

"Both the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Education have categorically deemed 'opt-in' to be inconsistent with NCLB," Cervantes said. "I've seen the federal government send down a lot of policies in my years working in state agencies, but I've talked with them, and this is the one that they've really dug their heels into. They're serious about this one. There is no ambiguity. Santa Cruz came close to losing their federal funding over this. And it's not partial funding. It's all federal funding. A couple of state legislators had to intervene to get them to change their policy and comply."

That was a part of a U.S. Department of Education crackdown on "opt-in" in the summer of 2003, in which letters were sent to state superintendents of education around the country notifying them that "opt-in" was illegal.

While the state education departments in neither Washington or Oregon have an official policy on the "opt-in/opt-out" military recruitment information issue, spokespersons in both departments said that districts in their states were complying with the U.S. Education Department's "opt-out" interpretation.

Meanwhile, California's Cervantes said that the 23 other rebelling California school districts have followed suit with Santa Cruz, changing their policy to releasing student information to military recruiters unless the parents or students choose to "opt-out."

But Berkeley did not change.

Since a 2003 policy on military information policy was passed by the school board in Berkeley, parents of Berkeley High School students are provided with a form in the Student/Parent Handbook asking the parents to check a box and sign their names stating: "Please DO release my student's name, and address, and/or telephone number." The form goes on to inform parents that if they "do not check a box and sign above, [the high school] will NOT release your child's information to military recruiters."