WASHINGTON -- As the war in Iraq continues to claim U.S. casualties and the military finds it increasingly difficult to attract new recruits, schools are reporting a growing resistance to military recruiters and to the requirement that they be given student contact information.

"It's definitely heating up," said Bruce Hunter of the American Association of School Administrators. "And the concern is all being generated by mothers and fathers and their children."

A particular focus of attention is a provision tucked into the voluminous No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that requires high schools to release student contact information to military recruiters or lose their federal funding.

Anti-war organizations have held several "Opt Out" days across the country to highlight the fact that parents can sign a form to prevent schools from providing information about their children to the military. In the Pittsburgh Public Schools, a resolution to give more information to parents for all students from 9th grade up is before the board. It will likely be voted on next week.

The organizations also have stepped up "counter-recruitment" efforts that focus on alternatives to military service, such as the Peace Corps.

"We don't like the law. But it exists, and it should exist with all the necessary protections for protecting students' privacy," said Oskar Castro, director of the National Youth and Militarism Project of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization.

Castro said anti-war activists are particularly incensed that the federal government has given so little formal guidance to schools about informing parents of the military recruiting provision in the No Child Left Behind Act or the opt-out alternative.

In many cases, information about the law is lost among a flood of flyers sent home at the beginning of the school year. Many parents learn of it only when a recruiter calls their sons or daughters at home.

The issue was spotlighted in April when the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico sued the Albuquerque Public School District for failing to adequately inform parents of their right to withhold student information. As more parents do learn of the situation, and as Americans continue to die in Iraq, the issue is building in schools across the country.

"Absolutely there has been more and more concern as time has gone on," said Lisa Soronen, staff attorney at the National School Boards Association. "There is a heightened sensitivity about what it means to serve your country at a time of war."

In Pittsburgh, as in other parts of the country, school officials are getting an increasing number of phone calls from parents, said Kaye Cupples, executive director of support services for Pittsburgh Public Schools. She attributed the upsurge to growing awareness that schools are obliged to release student information and that recruiters often focus on certain types of students, such as minorities or those from low-income homes.

Military recruiters, scrambling to meet quotas, also "are getting very aggressive out there," Cupples said. "Sometimes there are recruiters every day in the building in some of the larger high schools."

Military officials say the provision giving them access to student information is needed to help them staff all-volunteer services, which require hundreds of thousands to enter active duty or the Reserves and National Guard each year. The cost of recruiting has increased over the past decade, from $6,500 to $11,500 per recruit.

"We want the same access as postsecondary educational institutions and/or other prospective employers to the best and the brightest that this country has to offer," said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The Pentagon reported on Friday that the Army fell 25 percent short of its recruiting goal in May, the fourth consecutive monthly shortfall, although the Marine Corps met its target. Many of the nation's 22,000-plus high schools have long welcomed recruiters, saying they offer an important career alternative for students. According to Krenke, only one school district, in Fairport, N.Y., has publicly refused to comply with the requirement to release student information. Fairport officials say they don't oppose military service but believe parents should have to agree to give the military information about their children rather than being forced to "opt out" of a legal provision of which many are not aware.

Fairport officials have refused to budge despite appeals by the Pentagon and the potential loss of thousands of dollars of federal funds, Krenke said.

In other school districts, such as in Montclair, N.J., activist students have ensured a high percentage of "opt outs." More than 80 percent of Montclair High School students have opted out of providing contact information to the military since a student-led campaign began last year.

At Garfield High School in Seattle, a parent-teacher group has voted to ban military recruitment. School officials say they cannot legally stop recruitment, but they plan to increase efforts to notify parents about opting out.

In Congress, Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., is sponsoring legislation that would reverse the way the current provision works and require parents to formally "opt in" if they want a child's name, address and telephone number released to military recruiters. House GOP leaders hope to prevent it from coming to a vote, but the San Jose Democrat said he will try to attach it to other bills that seem sure to pass.

"While I support the right of the armed services to recruit high school students, I don't believe successful military recruitment efforts require access to students' personal information without their consent,'' Honda said.

Given increased parent concern, Pittsburgh school officials -- like many elsewhere -- are rethinking their policies.

Over the past few years, high school principals in Pittsburgh have sent out one letter each fall telling parents they could shield information about their children from military recruiters by signing a form.

Under the new policy, parents would receive a letter telling them they can keep the information from the military, colleges, prospective employers or all three. Notices also would be included in the "graduation requirements" booklet sent to all incoming 9^th graders and on the school district's Web site.

Guidance counselors would keep a list of which students can be contacted by which types of recruiters, Cupples said. He expects the school board to approve the policy at its next meeting this month.

Anti-war activists, meanwhile, plan to intensify their "opt out" campaign. "Our goal is to achieve one million opt outs sometime this fall," Castro said.