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 español) 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. More information >
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.
More information on JROTC >
^ Top of page |
Email this page