# The SERVE Act: What It Does and Who It Affects

The SERVE Act is designed to help the military recruit more young people by giving military recruiters better access to high school students and their information. The bill tackles what Congress sees as a serious recruitment crisis—the military is struggling to find enough qualified recruits, and the problem has gotten worse over the past 50 years. Today, only 12 percent of young people have a parent who served in the military, compared to 40 percent in 1995. This means fewer young people even know what military service involves or what benefits it offers.

The bill makes several concrete changes to how military recruiters can reach students. First, it requires high schools to give military recruiters "meaningful access," which means they must allow recruiters to visit at least four times per school year during busy times like lunch periods and between classes. Schools must also provide student directory information—including names, grades, and gender—to military recruiters on a regular basis (within 60 days of the school year starting, then every 30 days after that). This is a significant expansion of what recruiters can currently access. The bill also allows military recruiters to get information about students who don't return to school after a semester and students who have filed for federal financial aid, which could help recruiters identify students who might be interested in military benefits like education funding.

The bill also creates new opportunities for students to participate in Junior ROTC (JROTC) programs. Currently, if your high school doesn't have a JROTC unit, you're out of luck. The bill establishes "cross-town" JROTC arrangements, allowing students from schools without their own program to participate in JROTC at another school in their district. Additionally, the bill creates a two-year pilot program to recognize high schools with above-average military enlistment rates as "HERO schools" (Honoring Excellence and Recruitment Opportunities), and it gives priority consideration to applicants from these schools when they apply to military service academies like West Point or Annapolis. Finally, the bill establishes a "National Week of Military Recruitment" to be recognized annually across the country.