§ 503. Enlistments: recruiting campaigns; compilation of directory information

9,784 words·~44 min read·/usc/title-10/section-503

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(a)Recruiting Campaigns.—

(1)The Secretary concerned shall conduct intensive recruiting campaigns to obtain enlistments in the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, Regular Marine Corps, and Regular Coast Guard and the Space Force.

(2)The Secretary of Defense shall act on a continuing basis to enhance the effectiveness of recruitment programs of the Department of Defense (including programs conducted jointly and programs conducted by the separate armed forces) through an aggressive program of advertising and market research targeted at prospective recruits for the armed forces and those who may influence prospective recruits. Subchapter I of chapter 35 of title 44 shall not apply to actions taken as part of that program.

(3)PII regarding a prospective recruit collected or compiled under this subsection shall be kept confidential, and a person who has had access to such PII may not disclose the information except for purposes of this section or other purpose authorized by law.

(4)In the course of conducting a recruiting campaign, the Secretary concerned shall—

(A)notify a prospective recruit of data collection policies of the armed force concerned; and

(B)permit the prospective recruit to elect not to participate in such data collection.

(5)In this subsection, the term “PII” means personally identifiable information.

(b)Compilation of Directory Information.—

(1)The Secretary of Defense may collect and compile directory information pertaining to each student who is 17 years of age or older or in the eleventh grade (or its equivalent) or higher and who is enrolled in a secondary school in the United States or its territories, possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(2)The Secretary may make directory information collected and compiled under this subsection available to the armed forces for military recruiting purposes. Such information may not be disclosed for any other purpose.

(3)Directory information pertaining to any person may not be maintained for more than 3 years after the date the information pertaining to such person is first collected and compiled under this subsection.

(4)Directory information collected and compiled under this subsection shall be confidential, and a person who has had access to such information may not disclose such information except for the purposes described in paragraph (2).

(5)The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations to carry out this subsection. Regulations prescribed under this subsection shall be submitted to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives. Regulations prescribed by the Secretaries concerned to carry out this subsection shall be as uniform as practicable.

(6)Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as requiring, or authorizing the Secretary of Defense to require, that any educational institution furnish directory information to the Secretary.

(c)Access to Secondary Schools.—

(A)Each local educational agency receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965—

(i)shall provide to a military recruiter, for the purpose of recruiting students who are at least 17 years old, access—

(I)to the campus of a secondary school under the jurisdiction of such local educational agency; and

(II)that is equivalent to access provided to such campus to a prospective employer of such students, an institution of higher education, or another recruiter;

(ii)shall, upon the request of a military recruiter for the purpose described in clause (i), provide access to at least one in-person recruitment event (such as a career fair) per academic year; and

(iii)shall, upon the request of a military recruiter for the purpose described in clause (i), provide, not later than 30 days after receiving such request, access to secondary school student names, addresses, electronic mail addresses (which shall be the electronic mail addresses provided by the school, if available), and telephone and mobile phone listings, notwithstanding subsection (a)(5) of section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g).

(B)A local educational agency may not release a student’s name, address, electronic mail address, and telephone listing under subparagraph (A)(iii) without the prior written consent of a parent of the student if the student, or a parent of the student, has submitted a request to the local educational agency that the student’s information not be released for a purpose covered by that subparagraph without prior written parental consent. Each local educational agency shall notify parents of the rights provided under the preceding sentence.

(2)If a local educational agency denies a request by the Department of Defense for recruiting access, the Secretary of Defense, in cooperation with the Secretary of the military department concerned, shall designate an officer in a grade not below the grade of colonel or, in the case of the Navy, captain, or a senior executive of that military department to meet with representatives of that local educational agency in person, at the offices of that agency, for the purpose of arranging for recruiting access. The designated officer or senior executive shall seek to have that meeting within 120 days of the date of the denial of the request for recruiting access.

(3)If, after a meeting under paragraph

(2)with representatives of a local educational agency that has denied a request for recruiting access or (if the educational agency declines a request for the meeting) after the end of such 120-day period, the Secretary of Defense determines that the agency continues to deny recruiting access, the Secretary shall transmit to the chief executive of the State in which the agency is located a notification of the denial of recruiting access and a request for assistance in obtaining that access. The notification shall be transmitted within 60 days after the date of the determination. The Secretary shall provide to the Secretary of Education a copy of such notification and any other communication between the Secretary and that chief executive with respect to such access.

(4)If a local educational agency continues to deny recruiting access one year after the date of the transmittal of a notification regarding that agency under paragraph (3), the Secretary—

(A)shall determine whether the agency denies recruiting access to at least two of the armed forces (other than the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy); and

(B)upon making an affirmative determination under subparagraph (A), shall transmit a notification of the denial of recruiting access to—

(i)the specified congressional committees;

(ii)the Senators of the State in which the local educational agency is located; and

(iii)the member of the House of Representatives who represents the district in which the local educational agency is located.

(5)The requirements of this subsection do not apply to a private secondary school that maintains a religious objection to service in the armed forces and which objection is verifiable through the corporate or other organizational documents or materials of that school.

(6)The Secretary of Defense shall submit an annual report to Congress not later than February 1 each calendar year, detailing each notification of denial of recruiting access issued under paragraph (3).

(7)In this subsection:

(A)The term “local educational agency” means—

(i)a local educational agency, within the meaning of that term in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; and

(ii)a private secondary school.

(B)The term “recruiting access” means access requested as described in paragraph (1).

(C)The term “senior executive” has the meaning given that term in section 3132(a)(3) of title 5.

(D)The term “State” includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

(E)The term “specified congressional committees” means the following:

(i)The Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.

(ii)The Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives.

(F)The term “member of the House of Representatives” includes a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to Congress.

(Added Pub. L. 90–235, § 2(a)(1)(B), Jan. 2, 1968, 81 Stat. 754; amended Pub. L. 97–252, title XI, § 1114(b)(1), (2), Sept. 8, 1982, 96 Stat. 749; Pub. L. 104–106, div. A, title XV, § 1502(a)(1), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 502; Pub. L. 106–65, div. A, title V, § 571, title X, § 1067(1), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 622, 774; Pub. L. 106–398, § 1 [[div. A], title V, §§ 562, 563(a)–(c)], Oct. 30, 2000, 114 Stat. 1654, 1654A–131 to 1654A–133; Pub. L. 107–107, div. A, title V, § 544(a), title X, § 1048(a)(5)(A), Dec. 28, 2001, 115 Stat. 1112, 1222;

Pub. L. 108–136, div. A, title V, § 543, Nov. 24, 2003, 117 Stat. 1478; Pub. L. 108–375, div. A, title X, § 1084(d)(5), Oct. 28, 2004, 118 Stat. 2061; Pub. L. 114–95, title IX, § 9215(uuu)(1), Dec. 10, 2015, 129 Stat. 2190; Pub. L. 116–283, div. A, title V, § 521(a), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 3597; Pub. L. 117–263, div. A, title V, § 531(a), Dec. 23, 2022, 136 Stat. 2574; Pub. L. 118–31, div. A, title V, § 541, title XVII, § 1717(b)(1), Dec. 22, 2023, 137 Stat. 264, 655; Pub. L. 119–60, div. A, title V, § 531, Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 868.)

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