Confidentiality of public school students with H1N1?

[pabstist]

At the public high school my wife and I work at they have been sending any kid home with a fever, many every day. A few of those those kids actually turn out to have H1N1, or swine flu. BUT due to “laws”, “policy”, or something else, the kids names must stay anonymous and nobody can ever know who has the sickness.

They said if a teacher ever got it, that would be different; but finally one did and they are keeping it under wraps anyways.

What do you all think about this? I can understand keeping it confidential if a student is pregnant, or has nail fungus or gum disease, those aren’t really super contagious and life threatening. But shouldn’t everybody know if a person has swine flu, just in case they shared a chapstick or sneezed on each other somehow? If they knew, maybe then they could get proper treatment and at least stay at home to prevent the spread of possible disease.

This is a small high school, about 300 students in all. Everybody knows everyone, so nothing really stays anonymous. Why not just put the info out there? I can’t imagine that there is a stigma with having H1N1- it’s like saying that elementary students with chicken pox will be labeled as sluts and drunks for the rest of their lives, so never mention who has chicken pox. If anything, knowing who has it may reduce the “outbreak”. Or is there a reason for keeping them a secret?

[even_sven]

One thing that it does is keep the cranks calm. If you start releasing names, parents are going to start freaking out and keeping their kids home even when there is no reason whatsoever to do so.

[ZipperJJ]

Schools are very guarded about releasing any information about specific students. They’re all minors.

America is very guarded about releasing anyone’s personal health information. There are laws.

Health information about specific minors seems unfathomable to me.

[Pray_for_peace]

I’m not your lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice.

I think the school may be protecting the student medical information as secret because of federal privacy laws, e.g., HIPAA and FERPA. Cite.

Quoting from above -

The purpose of this guidance is to explain the relationship between the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA) Privacy Rule, and to address apparent confusion on the part of school administrators,
health care professionals, and others as to how these two laws apply to records maintained on
students. It also addresses certain disclosures that are allowed without consent or authorization
under both laws, especially those related to health and safety emergency situations. While this
guidance seeks to answer many questions that school officials and others have had about the
intersection of these federal laws, ongoing discussions may cause more issues to emerge.

At the elementary or secondary school level, students’ immunization and other health records that
are maintained by a school district or individual school, including a school-operated health clinic,
that receives funds under any program administered by the U.S. Department of Education are
“education records” subject to FERPA, including health and medical records maintained by a school
nurse who is employed by or under contract with a school or school district. Some schools may
receive a grant from a foundation or government agency to hire a nurse. Notwithstanding the
source of the funding, if the nurse is hired as a school official (or contractor), the records maintained
by the nurse or clinic are “education records” subject to FERPA.

Parents have a right under FERPA to inspect and review these health and medical records because
they are “education records” under FERPA. See 34 CFR §§ 99.10 – 99.12. In addition, these
records may not be shared with third parties without written parental consent unless the disclosure
meets one of the exceptions to FERPA’s general consent requirement. For instance, one of these
exceptions allows schools to disclose a student’s health and medical information and other
“education records” to teachers and other school officials, without written consent, if these school
officials have “legitimate educational interests” in accordance with school policy. See 34 CFR §
99.31(a)(1). Another exception permits the disclosure of education records, without consent, to
appropriate parties in connection with an emergency, if knowledge of the information is necessary
to protect the health or safety of the student or other individuals. See 34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(10) and
99.36.