Evanston Township High School officials have changed how they will implement part of the No Child Left Behind Act in response to parent concerns about military recruitment.

A provision of the 2001 law requires public high schools to provide military recruiters with access to schools and a list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of juniors and seniors. The law allows parents to “opt out” of the list by notifying school officials — but some parents complained ETHS wasn’t giving enough notice.

In response to the concerns of parents — including several who spoke at the Feb. 10 District 202 school board meeting — ETHS has mailed additional letters explaining the law. The school now provides an opt-out form on the ETHS Web site and restricts military recruiters’ access to school grounds. Administrators are considering further proposals for next year.

Before the Feb. 10 board meeting, administrators extended the deadline to Feb. 28 for parents to request information be withheld.

Sargent First Class Trent Bumgardner, the station commander at the Army recruiting station at 1320 Dodge Ave., said ETHS is the only school in his region that has not released a list. Bumgardner’s station, which is located near ETHS, also serves Skokie and several other north suburbs.

Marilyn Madden, the director of pupil personnel services at ETHS, is responsible for implementing the law. She said there is no deadline to comply. She plans to send the list of ETHS students to recruiters the first week of March, but Madden said she had not realized how frequently military recruiters are in the school building.

“When I heard that military recruiters were in the cafeteria, I notified the offices where visitors sign in that military recruiters must check in with me first,” she said.

Like college representatives, recruiters now will be given one hour to meet with students who choose to participate.

“I tell them, ‘Sure you can see students, but you have to do it like everybody else,'” Madden said.

Madden plans to meet today with Dickelle Fonda, an ETHS parent and attorney who spoke at the board meeting.

One of Fonda’s suggestions was to send parents a neutral form that allows them to check one of two boxes: one if they want to release the information, the other if they don’t.

If the form were not returned, the school would assume that permission had been denied, Fonda said.

“I really think eventually ETHS will take the initiative to be the progressive leader among area schools by going only as far as the law requires,” Fonda said.

Madden said the ETHS administration will consider Fonda’s proposal.

“It sounds feasible, but we have to make sure it is legal,” Madden said.

Robert Gartzman, an ETHS senior and student council president, said students who know about the military provision think recruiters have too much access to the school.

“Sometimes the recruiters won’t tell you the whole picture,” Gartzman said. “Many students don’t realize there’s a big chance now you’ll be sent off to war.”

About 1.6 percent of ETHS’s 2001 graduates entered military service, according to the school’s most recent data.

Bumgardner said that when recruiters call students, they explain the options the military provides and ask about their plans after high school. If students say they aren’t interested, the recruiters thank them for their time and hang up, he said.

“We really don’t sell anything,” Bumgardner said.

Recruitment at the high school level is necessary to sustain the demand for soldiers in the military, he said.