Is it ever acceptable for a school to push parents into handing over personal info to a business?

[PercyVere]

By "personal info" I mean the parents' names, address, phone no and also the names and ages of their children.

I've changed names just in case any other parents from the schoool are either MNers or lurkers. My dc bought a letter home from the Head which stated that they were enclosing some information from a business which supplies educational materials. So far so good. At the bottom it said that all parents had to fill in and return the enclosed reply slip, whether or not they were interested, "so that we know you've received this letter".

It turns out that the reply slip requires all of the information mentioned in my first paragraph and is going to be given to the business. There is no tick-box on the form to say that you never want to hear from the company. All it says is that the information will only be used by that company.

The tone of the letter was that it was very important to return the slip. I can easily imagine some parents taking it to mean that it was compulsory. Presumably the school gets some kind of payment for this and I know that they probably need every penny but is this really the way to go about it?

Does this happen in other schools?

no, imo

Absolutely not.

It sounds decidedly odd to me - can you not just return the slip with the relevant "Yes, I've received this" box ticked and your child's name, but nothing else? I would certainly find it unacceptable for a school to do this - I'm a Governor.

We had this recently. I signed it and returned it but that was it.

I've just read WWW's thread and from the wording it sounds as though this could well be the same company. I too had a look at their website and again it sounds similar. No mention of the exact costs involved either which means it's unlikely to be affordable for many of the parents at our school (including us).

I wouldn't have minded if the school had just sent the leaflet home for information but the wording of the letter was a step too far IMO.

Speaking as a governor, the governing body would expect to be consulted before our school sent out anything of this kind - and I don't think it would be allowed.
Very dodgy IMO, especially in the light of WWW's thread.

We had something similar. I returned it with a note to say I'd read it but I didn't want to give the company my details.

I think it is a step too far and was surprised the school was distributing it, but I also had the impression that the school would make something out of the process. The Head is bascially normally sensible in other respects, so I decided just to return the slip with minimum information, rather than create waves.

WE HAD SOMETHING SIMILAR LAST HALFTERM, THOUGH i can't remember if it asked for parents details. I sent it back with just my child's name and a no thanks. Was also annoyed about it.

We've had something similar a few times (sounds exactly the same the way it is worded) - I have never sent the slips back. If they're that bothered, they can ask me and I will tell them I have received it!

I am guessing the school may get money for each parent the firm knows has definitely got the info, but I refuse to play ball with junk mail.