Hipaa Questions

[Inarut]

What is the name of your state? Iowa

In an IEP meeting, 21/2 years ago, concerning our preschool aged child, the administrator of the Elementary school gave information and technicail term of a medical condition our child was born with. It caused several issues with people who were working with our child. We specifically discussed with her to not do this in this type of environment. At this time, what are our legal rights?

 

[tigger22472]

What is the name of your state? Iowa

In an IEP meeting, 21/2 years ago, concerning our preschool aged child, the administrator of the Elementary school gave information and technicail term of a medical condition our child was born with. It caused several issues with people who were working with our child. We specifically discussed with her to not do this in this type of environment. At this time, what are our legal rights?

You did not give nearly enough information really.... but second of all this is not a HIPPA violation. This law only concerns health care providers.

Secondly, being that it was an IEP meeting regarding the best course of action to help your child with their education and with whatever issues they might have the best thing that could have been done was to give accurate information and explain the medical condition to those that would be involved.

 

[notsmartmark]

In addition Hipaa information received by schools lose their Hipaa protections (especially regarding re-release) and move to Ferpa along with the IDEA access requirements.

If the health concerns were related to her disability or impact the provision of services, you would need to demonstrate that the team do not need to know the information which is a high threshold.

 

[CdwJava]

What is the name of your state? Iowa

In an IEP meeting, 21/2 years ago, concerning our preschool aged child, the administrator of the Elementary school gave information and technicail term of a medical condition our child was born with. It caused several issues with people who were working with our child. We specifically discussed with her to not do this in this type of environment. At this time, what are our legal rights?

Even if there was a violation of some kind (and given the circumstances I doubt there was - certainly not under HIPAA) I think the time frame to act has long since passed ... 2 1/2 years is likely 1 1/2 years too long to act.

What are the damages you or your child had suffered?

Consult local counsel if you think you have a case.

EDIT: To add to mark's comment, I have a child with an IEP and his medical condition was definitely part of the equation and was brought out during the team meeting as required. Had we not permitted it to be brought up, he would not have an IEP in place.

- Carl

 

[Inarut]

Our child has an IEP for a different problem. We had several people that work with him quit because of that incident.
Thanks for the response

 

[notsmartmark]

I know it's not easy, but if you are seeking true advice from this site, you will need to provide more information.

For example, if your child is significantly cognitively delayed and requires toileting assistance or has explosive behavior and has AIDS, informing the staff and teaching them procautions is not only ethically responsible, it's a very defensable position.

But if your high school aged child has a learning disability and has AIDS, it is possible that some of the team members do not need to know your child's medical information.

In order to provide you advice beyond mere speculation, more details of your case are needed.

I'm also interested in the relief that you are seeking, and more importantly, is that relief is available through FERPA, an OCR complaint, or IDEA.

 

[Inarut]

Here we go, my child was born with CMV, which is a virus that pretty much only effects people that have a really bad immune system or child during pregency. The only side effects we can tell at birth was a significant low birth weight. At 3 months of age our child recieved a severe head trama, that has left him with a significant development delay, partial left side development problems and nonverbal. He is now 7 years old. This CMV virus is primarily transported through contact with diapers and bad hygeine practices. It is estimated that 15-20% of kids have this virus and don't even know it.
Anyway this information was delivered to the person in charge of our IEP and was instructed that she could let people know if she thought they needed to our let us know and we would do the same. The one thing we told here is we never wanted to discuss it in a group environment. We made this very clear, we had a specific meeting with her about it.
So in our group (12) meeting she said a comment about him needed his own bathroom because of CMV. Which then caused a big uproar in which 3 people working with Chase quit and then a replacement person was telling everyone that she was assigned esp. to work with our son because he had a highly infectious disease (she was replaced at our request). We tried to reassure everyone it was ok and not as big deal as everyone was making it out to be. We had our son tested about a month before and they said it looked as if he wasnt even expelling the virus anymore (ussually around 5 you stop expelling virus). This all started to happen around 2 years ago. We live in a small town and it spread fast.
Bringing it back to present day we just got word that our person working with our child is no longer going to be working and the school is looking for a replacement. And once again we here bits of info about our son having a horrible disease through the pipeline and whoever the replacement is better be careful.

 

[notsmartmark]

I think it would be challenging to win for the release of information in this situation. I don't think you have a winning IDEA or FERPA case given the info supplied, but many cases are won on the nuances that would only come out with reviewing all of the records.

But I wonder if you currently want to win or, instead, your win would be your child treated with dignity and having staff not get hysterical based on limited information. I think you need a nurse to be part of your child’s team, at least initially, to explain the medical and health safety needs. The sped teacher is most likely not the best individual to be the medical liaison.

I understand that you should expect the school staff to be more aware of individual needs, but your child is going to need you to be his advocate. I see schools and parents with winning positions, but who cannot achieve their desired results. You can be right and still lose. Keep thinking about the goal to have a supportive team surround your child. There’s a time to spank them, but remember there are a bunch of unintended outcomes with spanking. I think being open and honest about your child’s needs is the best situation. Talking about his medical needs with the team is appropriate just as talking about you concerns about maintaining his confidential rights and his dignity is appropriate.

 

[Inarut]

Thank you for your time and well put reply.