Details: The Virginia Tech shootings brought up a sore point for me. When college teachers refer a disturbed student for counseling services, they aren't able to learn whether or not the student is being treated. When students face judicial affairs sanctions, neither student nor teacher complainents can find out if the offending student faced any sanctions, much less is still attending school. I'm curious about the actual law, because I'm writing to my local representatives to work to change the law. Any help or pointers appreciated.
What laws protect college student confidentiality, re: mental health issues?
A student is covered under the same privacy and confidentiality laws as the rest of us citizens.
The only change in the laws that I see may benifit everyone would be in the confidentiality section, and it would be very restrictive. The mental health director of a clinic would authorize the publishing of a name of a patient, in a registry ,that had severe, harmfull, issues. That registry would only be accessible by the chief of Police and his delegate. It would not, and should not , be accessible by other students, teachers or the public. The police computer would " Red Flag' if the patients name was entered on a check.Restricted networking would only allow certain information, enough for the police to work on.
There will be many ideas that will come forward on this and other elements of this horible incident.
Reply:Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Reply:it is called HIPAA. http://www.hipaa.org/
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