Question-opinions?

[WeCantWait]

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[millerpjm]

I think that would be a perfect response. The teacher should not have mentioned the child by name. She could mention "another child in class" but not the child's name.

 

[Piper]

It is not ethical to discuss a student with anyone other than his parents. In my district that would be grounds for a major reprimand. Please do let her know that you are very uncomfortable with her discussing the other student with you and you want to make sure she does not discuss your child with anyone without your express consent!

 

[deerhart]

Not only is it unethical, it is ILLEGAL for the teacher to reveal to you that another child is on medication. This is a violation of HIPAA (which the schools are bound to follow).

In fact, under HIPAA, the only people at the school who are allowed to know ANYTHING regarding a child's medical conditions, etc.. are those that need to know. So for example, the only people that know my child has an IEP are his immediate teachers, principal/VP, counselor, nurse, and SPED teachers. Further, each teacher is only allowed to know just so much info that they need to deal with the child, not everything. The school has to go so far to protect which students in class have conditions and such (on medications, IEP's etc) from OTHER students, teacher helpers, parent volunteers, etc..

So, his music, strings, and art teacher do not even know he has an IEP because he does not need it for their classes. His PE teacher does know.

You should report it to the administration, because if she's done it to you she's done it multiple times and the administration needs to reinforce the privacy laws must be followed or the school could be held liable.

Now, that doesn't mean people don't know things. I spent an awful lot of time in my son's extended resource room and knew all the kids that were in there. I knew all of them had IEP's, because otherwise they wouldn't be in the room. We also could usually figure out what each child's disability was. My son was also pretty curious about why some kids got to use certain things and he didn't, but the teacher approached it more along the lines of what my son observed in class (you know you have seen x have trouble walking, my son would say yes, well this item is to help his feet get better at that) then giving away things they weren't supposed to. My son also knows what a few kids he has been in SPED with for a very long time are diagnosed with. I have not asked how he knows this, but I assume that the child has shared the information with mine OR if the information came from someone else, they had permission to share it with my son. Some of the parents of a few kids who are mainstreamed, but have some pretty severe disabilities in my kids classes have chosen to discuss the issues with the classroom so that the children understand more and accept the child more.

A better way of the teacher passing along the same information to you would have been for her to say something like that in her past experience teaching ADHD that it may take several medical trials, adjustments, etc.. until you have found the right fit for a child (which is a very true statement)

 

[WeCantWait]

Thank you all for the replies.

 

[SueM in MN]

Having worked as a school nurse in the past, I can tell you that teachers sometimes did share information that they should not have. That is very wrong and you are right to be upset about it.

One correction to something that was posted - health information in schools are not usually covered by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

"Covered entities" for HIPAA are individuals or groups that provide or operate healthcare services, healthcare clearinghouses and health plans. If your school has a health clinic connected with it, that would not be covered and have to abide by HIPAA.
Privacy of IEP information and health information that affects education are covered by another set of rules, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”).

Even if there were no rules covering privacy, it still would be an invasion of privacy to share that type of information (and I think it was also unethical for the teacher to tell your child that sometimes medication for ADHD makes children sad. Nothing like putting ideas into his head!)

 

[bookwormde]

Sue is correct only health services and clinicians (including Psycologists SLPs OT and PT) are coverd by HIPPA. Federal and state laws prevent disclosure of priveleged student infomation. It would be proper to disclose this infomation if the parnet has given prior specific permission to disclose it. I allow my school to disclose my child's disability so that that information can benefit other students and parnets. They are still very careful in how and when they do this.

bookwormde

 

[deerhart]

sorry I lumped them all together. Your right, only the nurse and possibly the counselor are covered under HIPAA, FERPA does prevent the rest of the staff from releasing the info.

But, more to the point, it is still illegal and shouldn't be done. I would bypass the teacher and go STRAIGHT to the administration. She should NOT be telling the children what side effects of medication are, especially if she doesn't know what meds he;s on.

 

[SueM in MN]

sorry I lumped them all together. Your right, only the nurse and possibly the counselor are covered under HIPAA, FERPA does prevent the rest of the staff from releasing the info.

But, more to the point, it is still illegal and shouldn't be done. I would bypass the teacher and go STRAIGHT to the administration. She should NOT be telling the children what side effects of medication are, especially if she doesn't know what meds he;s on.

Most health information in schools is actually covered under FERPA, even for the nurse and counselors (health information in schools was exempted from HIPAA, as I understand, because it was already covered under FERPA). Some states may have ruled it's covered under HIPAA, but it's considered a gray area in other states.

The only reason I mentioned it is that if the OP mentioned HIPAA to the school, it might lead the school people down the path of rationalizing why they do not need to comply with HIPAA. And, they might be so busy doing that and not deal with the fact that it is unethical to disclose private information even if there were no laws against it.

 

[jmartinez1895]

I would be upset as well, if she is telling that child's information, is she telling information about yours as well? I do think her heart was in the right place and maybe you should just bring it up in a friendly way.
One a second note, it took my children ( all 3 of them) some tweaking before we got the right drug at the right dose. We also had to cut of red food coloring and high frutose corn syrup for my youngest. I hope you are able to find the right thing soon.

 

[ireland_nicole]

Gosh, I would be super upset at this point on so many levels. I would speak to the teacher (today if possible), then send a follow up email. If there is so much as a whiff of inappropriate talk/behavior after that, I would not pass go but either send an email or make an immediate appt. with the principal (which I would bring previous correspondence to).

First, she has no legal right to reveal this info (details already covered by pp's well.)

Second, she shouldn't be pulling your son out of his usual routine/environment to "chat"- trust me, the other kids definitely notice that sort of change in behavior.

Third, I'm all kinds of flabbergasted about her "instructing" your child about med side effects. Wow. So, so, so, inappropriate and out of line... As a nurse, I'm just stunned.

Anyway, just wanted to support you and say I think you're on the right track in terms of feeling this is not ok.

 

[WeCantWait]

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