One aspect of a law called FERPA helps protect the privacy of students from having their information released without their consent.
There are two new initiatives going on right now that are requesting information from schools - one at the Federal level where the US DOE plans to track FAFSA completion rates (the FAFSA is the application for Federal Student Aid that 12th grade students fill out) the other where the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) plans to track what happens to students after high school (in other words, do they go to college, if so where, if so do they graduate, etc).
Every student will have their information released unless they complete the opt-out form, found by clicking here. The information they plan to release includes your name, birthday, graduation year, and address. There is no penalty for opting out. My understanding is that these pieces of data will not be made available to the public, but they will be made available to the US DOE and NSC who are compiling the data about these two issues (FAFSA and post-secondary outcomes).
If you want to opt out the form must be returned to Ms. Feldman in the main office by no later than February 20th. If you can't print it out, see Ms. Feldman for a hard copy.
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