A new Department of Education policy makes it easier for the military to get high-school students’ personal information than for colleges, trade schools and employers, advocates say.
The policy allows the military to access a student’s name, address and telephone number directly from the DOE’s central offices – which for the first time is collecting information on 11th- and 12th- grade students from each school.
Students can tell their schools not to release their information.
Before the change went into effect in September, military recruiters had to canvass each high school directly. Employers and schools still have to do individual canvassing.
The New York Civil Liberties Union and other officials are asking the DOE to halt the practice.