by Meghan Gilbert

Toledo Blade

Toledo Public Schools has just finished an overdue comprehensive review of district policy that includes updates to information on how families can "opt out" of lists provided to the military.

The forms for parents and students to eliminate their private information now will be sent along with the emergency medical cards at the beginning of the school year.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires high schools to give military recruiters student phone numbers and addresses unless a parent files a written request that the information not be shared.

The law also requires that military recruiters have the same access to students as college recruiters. It applies to all public and private schools that receive federal funding.

The "Learning Not Recruiting" committee, called the "Student and Family Rights and Privacy Committee," has been working for years to give families greater knowledge of how to protect private information.

The concern was that the opt-out form was lost in the shuffle with many other pieces of school information, said Peggy Daly-Masternak, a West Toledo resident and co-chairman of Learning Not Recruiting. But the emergency medical card is something all parents know to complete, she said.

"Parents lead very busy lives, and to not have it visible is such a concern," she said. "Privacy is a growing concern for all of us."

The group had wanted the opt-out information put on the emergency card, but this was a good compromise, she said.

"This makes it visible and gives parents an easy mechanism to make their privacy choices known," Ms. Daly-Masternak said.

The rights for parents and students regarding student records also will be available through principals' newsletters, student information packets, new-student enrollee information, and the district's Web site.

The student records policy also now has in writing that TPS employees will not administer the military entrance test, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.

Superintendent John Foley said the district previously had a directive to that effect, but this puts it in the records.

"It really was about bringing us up to speed," he said of the policy review.

The district's updated policies are to be posted soon on the district's Web site, www.tps.org.

The superintendent said that having the policies in digital form will make them easier to keep up to date.

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 http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090820/NEWS04/908200342

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