# Is the school district allowed to sell my info? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331 "2008-04-07T16:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jeepus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeepus/32/3593_2.png) [@jeepus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeepus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/1 "2008-04-07T16:28:39Z")
Hi, I’m in Colorado and have a student approaching graduation. I have noticed quite a flurry of senior picture advertising, college prep stuff, and many cards and letters from all branches of the military. I’m also getting phone calls from people wanting to sell me college preparation programs, like the American Education Foundation. I can ony assume that all of these senders of flyers and telephone callers got their informaiton from our school district. Is the school district allowed to sell my name and address in this state? Shouldn’t they at least have to get my permission? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/2 "2008-04-07T16:53:24Z")
Did you take the ACT, SAT, or AP tests? Those companies will sell your information. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/3 "2008-04-07T17:18:54Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] Did you take the ACT, SAT, or AP tests? Those companies will sell your information. [/QUOTE] And your kid’s scores, which I personally think is repugnant. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/4 "2008-04-07T17:23:29Z")
[QUOTE=jeepus] Is the school district allowed to sell my name and address in this state? Shouldn’t they at least have to get my permission? [/QUOTE] Have you contacted your school district and asked them about it? ---
**Author:** ![jeepus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeepus/32/3593_2.png) [@jeepus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeepus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/5 "2008-04-07T17:28:14Z")
He recently took an ACT test for the first time, perhaps a month ago. It was a practice test only, and I thought it was organized by the school. I don’t know that for sure. I have a call in to the school to ask some questions. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/6 "2008-04-07T17:28:45Z")
I don’t know how it would work out if you took the case to the Colorado Supreme Court but that is what public schools do everywhere either directly or indirectly. At one point, I was getting 5 - 10 very elaborate college information and recruitment packages a day. Combine that with military recruiter calls and just plain retail solicitations and it gets to be a bit much. As mentioned above, many of those inquiries are probably coming through third parties like testing companies or picture companies and there is no way to stop that. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/7 "2008-04-07T17:33:42Z")
[QUOTE=jeepus] He recently took an ACT test for the first time, perhaps a month ago. It was a practice test only, and I thought it was organized by the school. I don’t know that for sure. I have a call in to the school to ask some questions. [/QUOTE] If it was the ACT Plan Assessment then it may have been organized by the school but was administered by the ACT organization. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/8 "2008-04-07T20:03:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Today, military recruiters have unprecedented access to public schools. The little-known Section 9528 of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 grants the Pentagon access to directories of all public high schools (supplying them with student names, addresses and phone numbers) to facilitate contact for military service recruitment. Source: [http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0223-36.htm](http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0223-36.htm) Here is the official fed link —\> [http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/hottopics/ht-10-09-02a.html](http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/hottopics/ht-10-09-02a.html) ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-school-district-allowed-to-sell-my-info/444331/9 "2008-04-09T01:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=jeepus] Hi, I’m in Colorado and have a student approaching graduation. I have noticed quite a flurry of senior picture advertising, college prep stuff, and many cards and letters from all branches of the military. I’m also getting phone calls from people wanting to sell me college preparation programs, like the American Education Foundation. I can ony assume that all of these senders of flyers and telephone callers got their informaiton from our school district. Is the school district allowed to sell my name and address in this state? Shouldn’t they at least have to get my permission? [/QUOTE] At some point in the child’s career you probably signed a release. Schools routinely collect them so that children can be photographed for news releases and school assemblies. Once signed, they rarely expire. And depending on how they are written, they could (I suppose) cover more than just a picture.