Sharing students' medical info with teachers

Are you in a public school?

If yes, you are covered by FERPA, not HIPAA. FERPA allows you to share information with anyone in the school who has a "legitimate educational interest" in the child, but only the amount of information needed to provide a safe environment and those aspects that affect learning. FERPA allows you to do this, but does not obligate you to share and many districts ask the parents to sign an authorization to release information internally. The Pediatrician is asking because if affects their ability to share information with you. You should be using a HIPAA Compliant release form to get information form any HIPAA covered entity and many providers are reluctant to share information with schools as the level of security and confidentiality in some schools is far below HIPAA standards, and often far below FERPA standards. HIPAA was modeled after FERPA, but many who handle sensitive information in schools never heard of FERPA until HIPAA came along. They are very similar laws.

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We have a release on every student, signed by the parent. I got about 98%"yes" responses, one or two limiting the information to share, and a few that downright said "no". The release encompasses the school career in our town. The releases are in a binder, by grade, and get passed from school to school. It is part of the papers parents complete when a new student transfers into district as well.

Powerpoint: Privacy Standards for Student Health Records

Privacy in Education

State-by-State Confidentiality

As a school nurse in a miloitary community , sharing of information is a real bugbear as we are covered by the Nurses Act but come under military law too
In terms of child protection , the military unit , a named individual within the school , the GP and social worker are part of the child protection plan and I admit I find that uncomfortable . In the UK your employer would not be informed if you had Child Protection plan in place
In schools we try to persuade parents to share the information on medical matters , purely as a matter of safety so that we can go in and train teachers on the condition and how to deal with an emergency . We have care plans for all children with long term serious illnesses and allergies These are signed off by parent , health and school and each keeps a copy They are updated every 6 months or sooner if a change in condition occurs
We do have a drop in in the high school Again where necessary we would obtain the clients permissiion to share ( unless it is a CP issue )
At the end of the day , if your child has a serious illness and you refuse to share with teachers ( albeit designated ones ) , if something goes horribly wrong you cannot sue the school for lack of care - that is the fact I tell all parents if they refuse to co-operrate
I have to say it rarely happens in serious cases and the fact that Johnny still wets the bed at 14 is of no concern at school unless thy go on a residential so I would then have a chat with Johnny - suggest he sees our paediatrician for medication and give him some tips re drinking etc and let him choose Does he want the lead teacher to know ( just in case) Can he have a separate room ? There are ways round most things if you get cooperation .

New FERPA Privacy update from US Department of Education:
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fp...t12-17-08.html

While it is OK to share general information with teachers to enable them to do their job more effectively, I would always speak with the parents before sharing specific information in order to have the parents on board - even if your district has a general consent form that parents sign at the beginning of the school year. This will enable you to have an opportunity to speak with the parents and explain the importance of the teachers having possibly life-saving information about their child. You can avoid having to share a lot of specific information if you have pre-prepared information sheets about certain conditions and/or emergency situations that you can give to the teachers at the beginning of the school year. Another good way to educate the teaching staff is to provide informational sessions 3-4 times a year or more, depending on your availability, about certain conditions that may or not affect kids in their classroom. With HIPPA in place you cannot simply open up your personal professional files to anyone who asks - even administration. So go carefully with what you share. Working in a school is no different that working in a hospital or any other medical/nursing facility when it comes to information and nursing files.

Agreed with everything stated- my two cents- Teachers collect the emergency cards at the beginning of the year which have a space provided for parents to write in medical issues. I know this only applies to the classroom teacher and for parents who fill in that space. But anyway, just saying that teachers get this info often before the nurse does!

This is kind of a followup question -something that has been bothering me. My school district (and many others) use a medical record system where the nurses log in each student visit. My concern is this system allows the principal, his secretary and the guidance counselors all access to this log when they pull up the student. I feel this is a breech of confidentiality-what do you think? Thanks.