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School Disclosure of Medical info

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Snapp

Junior Member
Hello, I am in Washington State.

The situation is that my daughter was diagnosed with lice three weeks ago as school.

We are now in the 3rd week of treatment, my daughters hair has been inspected worked on every night. Yesterday we received a call from the school stating to pick up our daughter, she has lice.

We refused, as we are aware of the school policy (no live lice, eggs are ok) and we were aware that our daughter has no live lice. When they (the school nurse) checked her hair no live lice were found, only eggs.

The result of this though was that the principle of the school called our daycare center, who would be picking up my daughter and informed them that our daughter had lice (which they had been aware 3 weeks ago, but different daycare workers).

Now the question, is this an unlawful disclosure of personal information? Does the school have the right to relay medical information to non-affiliated daycare centers?

Sorry for the long post.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
It is incredibly irresponsible of you to send your child to school with lice...even eggs. You DO know that eggs HATCH, right?
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
Hello, I am in Washington State.

The situation is that my daughter was diagnosed with lice three weeks ago as school.

We are now in the 3rd week of treatment, my daughters hair has been inspected worked on every night. Yesterday we received a call from the school stating to pick up our daughter, she has lice.

We refused, as we are aware of the school policy (no live lice, eggs are ok) and we were aware that our daughter has no live lice. When they (the school nurse) checked her hair no live lice were found, only eggs.

The result of this though was that the principle of the school called our daycare center, who would be picking up my daughter and informed them that our daughter had lice (which they had been aware 3 weeks ago, but different daycare workers).

Now the question, is this an unlawful disclosure of personal information? Does the school have the right to relay medical information to non-affiliated daycare centers?

Sorry for the long post.


Nothing unlawful as far as I can see.

HIPAA does not apply, certainly.
 

Snapp

Junior Member
It is incredibly irresponsible of you to send your child to school with lice...even eggs. You DO know that eggs HATCH, right?
Actually health advisory states that children should not be excluded from schools for lice.

Perhaps you may want to be informed on the topic before discussing it?
 

lealea1005

Senior Member
Being a former school nurse, as well as the mother of a daughter who was continuously infected with lice from another child in her class , I am "informed".

Letters must go out to all parents in your child's class alerting them to a lice infestation along with instructions regarding identification of lice and eggs. All children in your child's class must be screened for lice and eggs, taking time out of what should be instructional time because one parent is irresponsible enough to send their child to school while still infected.

As stated earlier, this IN NO WAY is a HIPAA violation. A HIPAA violation occurs when a Physician/health care provider releases medical information about a patient.

I applaud your tenaciousness in inspecting your child's hair/scalp on a daily basis, but you need to take it a step further. As inconvenient as it may be for you, PLEASE do not send your child to school until all eggs and live live are completely gone.
 
Being a former school nurse, as well as the mother of a daughter who was continuously infected with lice from another child in her class , I am "informed".

Letters must go out to all parents in your child's class alerting them to a lice infestation along with instructions regarding identification of lice and eggs. All children in your child's class must be screened for lice and eggs, taking time out of what should be instructional time because one parent is irresponsible enough to send their child to school while still infected.

As stated earlier, this IN NO WAY is a HIPAA violation. A HIPAA violation occurs when a Physician/health care provider releases medical information about a patient.

I applaud your tenaciousness in inspecting your child's hair/scalp on a daily basis, but you need to take it a step further. As inconvenient as it may be for you, PLEASE do not send your child to school until all eggs and live live are completely gone.
I disagree that you should have to keep the kid out of school for eggs. If OP's child has lice almost certainly others do as well (thus the letters sent out). It took me 3-4 weeks to completely remove the lice from my daughter. It's unreasonable to expect every child with lice to miss a month of school.

On the question asked, no the school did nothing illegal. The lice would be common knowledge between school and the daycare.

Use a RobiComb if you can. Some lice are immune to many medications. RobiComb is medication free and works quite well.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
Even if there WAS a law forbidding sending a child home from school for lice, that would NOT apply to a day care. While older children generally keep more distance from each other and can be taught to avoid sharing combs, clothing, etc, very young children could not be expected to take the same precautions. And they likely have nap time together, sharing or being nearby to blankets, stuffed animals, etc. It absolutely warrents the precautions they are taking.

I had lice several times as a child. The only way to get rid of it was for my mother to sit with me for hours in the bathroom every night pulling out the eggs by hand. The combs don't work. And I had a LOT of hair. The worst I ever had it, even that wasn't enough and a prescription treatment was needed after almost a year of OTC shampoos failing. It was HORRENDOUS.
 
Even if there WAS a law forbidding sending a child home from school for lice, that would NOT apply to a day care. While older children generally keep more distance from each other and can be taught to avoid sharing combs, clothing, etc, very young children could not be expected to take the same precautions. And they likely have nap time together, sharing or being nearby to blankets, stuffed animals, etc. It absolutely warrents the precautions they are taking.

I had lice several times as a child. The only way to get rid of it was for my mother to sit with me for hours in the bathroom every night pulling out the eggs by hand. The combs don't work. And I had a LOT of hair. The worst I ever had it, even that wasn't enough and a prescription treatment was needed after almost a year of OTC shampoos failing. It was HORRENDOUS.
The RobiComb is not a regular lice comb and absolutely works. :)
 

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