Secondary school students who don't want their information submitted to military recruiters have until Sept. 15 to submit an "opt out" request to military recruiters.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires the state Department of Education to provide names, addresses and telephone numbers (including unlisted numbers) of secondary students to military recruiters when requested.

Secondary school students are broadly defined as students enrolled in middle, intermediate and high schools, the DOE said.

A student in a secondary school can, on his/her own, submit a signed, written request for nondisclosure of his/her information. Or the parent/guardian of a secondary student or an eligible student can submit the opt-out request.

Although the opt-out form is not legally required, the DOE has developed the form for military recruiting to facilitate response from students or their parents.

If an opt-out for military recruiters was filed with the school during the 2007-2008 school year, the request will be honored until the student leaves the Hawai'i public school system or until the submitter rescinds the opt-out request.

Opt-out requests will be accepted at any time during the school year, DOE officials said.

However, the DOE is required to turn over a student list to the Inter-Service Recruitment Council in mid-October. If a request comes in after student lists have been submitted to the IRC, the DOE Information Resource Management Branch will inform the IRC to have recruiters remove the student's information from the list.