Schools OK recruiter shield

Policy lets students withhold contact information from military

By Anica Butler

sun reporter

Originally published August 4, 2006

It will be easier for Anne Arundel County parents to keep their children's information from military recruiters, thanks to a new policy adopted by the board of education this week.

Parents will soon be able to fill out forms on the high schools' Web sites, in addition to the one already available on the school system's site and in the student handbook, requesting that their child's name, phone number and address not be given to recruiters.

The action follows criticism from parents, locally and nationally, about a previously little-known provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that requires all public school districts in the country to share that information with military recruiters who request it.