Disregarding the doctor

Email from parent to principal

Dear [principal],

Thank you for your quick response about the Home and Careers class. While I appreciate [teacher's] desire for a “back up system” regarding student’s medical history, I don’t feel it appropriate or acceptable to rely on a student’s self-reporting of such.

Student medical history should be provided to teachers by the school nurse, or directly available via emergency care plans, 504 plans, IEPs, and/or written instructions for care providers. The sharing of medical information requires written permission from the parents, and we have done so in the beginning of the school year with the submission of appropriate forms and complete medical history. At no time have we granted permission for [child] to self-report his medical history to individual teachers, nor have we granted consent for the minor’s self-reported data to be used by school personnel as a backup system for medical information.

I am not trying to be a pain, but this is a serious concern. As an FYI:

• Health information in either paper or electronic form must be confidential, secure, accessible only by authorized staff, and protected from loss or destruction. In keeping with medical record requirements, school health records are cumulative and chronological, and errors are not changed, rather recorded on the appropriate date Management of student health records includes their generation, maintenance, protection, disclosure, and destruction.
• Privacy, confidentiality, and consent are related to record management
• Paper records are generally kept in locked files. Some school staff will need immediate access to some health information, such as that in emergency care plans, 504 plans, IEPs, and written instructions for care providers
• Laws governing school health records include the Federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as individual state laws

As an aside, it has just come to my attention that there is a “SADD Valentine Sale” which consists of candy sales and delivery of candy valentines 9th period next Friday. Please advise what candies are being sold and delivered throughout the school facility. This is something that the school should have advised us about since it results in food products bring distributed to classrooms throughout the school facility.

-[Parent]