“Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies“—Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright 1799 –1850
The beginning of the School year, brings the plethora of forms home from school with the kids for parents to fill out and return. A physical health form must be signed by the family physician. Conversely, I find such forms to be intrusive, asking for health insurance provider information, group numbers, policy numbers and a bunch of other information generally outside my personal comfort zone for the submission to local government bureaucrats. When I ask about it, my kid responds, “we must have this information in by (date certain) or else we’ll get into trouble…” Get into “trouble?” When bureaucrats say, “do this or else!” it is part of my personality to ask, “or else what?” What kind of bureaucracy punishes kids because of what the parent ‘might not’ do? What if a parent is English challenged? What if the parent is on crack?
I fully understand why educrats ask for such information. However, I question what happens to the information beyond the stated purpose. Often times other uses come into play, never intended. Seems to me only physicians and health care providers need insurance information, not the school. The educrats require a medical permission slip for just about everything to include a plastic back-scratcher, so given that layer, why must they have the insurance information? I assert, they don’t…
Next is the free or reduced lunch program. My family does not even come close to being eligible. Yet the educrats send home a form for us to fill out, directing the disclosure of our income and earnings. don’t think so! Summarily, I just put one red line through the whole stinking form and wrote on it that we do not meet the current eligibility requirements and I initialed it. If they don’t like it, SCREW EM! They’ll get over it with time and counseling.
Then today, we get this Middle School opt out form. There is a disclosure at the top which reads as follows:
The No Child Left behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires school districs [sic] to release the names, addresses, and telephone listings of secondary school students to military recruiters upon theirequest [sic] unless the students or their parents request that the students’ contact information NOT be released without prior written parental consent. NCLB requires school districts to inform the secondary students”[sic] parents (their right to opt out.
If this form is completed, signed and returned to the students’ chool[sic], the school and school district shall not release the student’s directory information to any party without prior written parental consent.
The forms’ pretext started out as a narrowly defined disclosure waiver for military recruiters, but then expanded well beyond that scope. Why is that? well, here is what I think:
The first choice on the form is,
As the parent or legal guardian of this student, I am exercising my “opt out” right to direct that my school and school district shall not release my directory information to any party without prior written consent.
The Second Choice is,
As the parent or legal guardian of this student, I am exercising my “opt out” right to direct that the student’s school and school district shall NOT release directory information to the following party(ies) without my prior written consent.
The first choice in essence of the plain language used, implies that if this form is not signed and returned, a students directory (personal) information may be released. Nowhere in this form does it reference annual maintenance and disclosure provisions as set forth in N.H. RSA 189:1-e.
The second choice is a faux attempt to roll RSA 189:1-e annually required provision that states in part, “[E]ach year schools shall give parents public notice of the types of information designated as directory information. By a specified time after parents are notified of their review rights, parents shall request in writing to remove all or part of the information on their child that they do not wish to be available to the public. Such approval shall be renewed on an annual basis…” Ever seen that form?
This form seeks to curry compliance in blocking military recruiters from having access to students and schools and uses faint pretexts from RSA 189:1-e to that end. The problem is that the NCLB disclosure opt-out is fundamentally different than the student directory disclosure set forth in RSA 189:1-e. Its just plain sneaky, underhanded and dishonest.
