15 / 138
15
DoDEA School Health Services Manual 2942.0 Volume 1 Revised: 2016 DRAFT
C-1 Introduction
School nursing is a specialty practice of professional nursing serving students,
families and staff within the educational setting. The DoDEA goal for school nursing,
consistent with the goals of the NASN’s (as stated in Scope and Standards of Practice
for School Nursing, 2011), is to advance the "well-being, academic success, and life-
long achievement of students.” School nurses understand the professional and legal
implications of providing health care within the educational arena. Each school nurse’s
office has a set of school nurse reference books for guidance.
See Section I: I-2for a
list of references.
C-2 Ethics
School nurses must be aware of the protection of students’ privacy information
that is afforded by the Privacy Act (PA), 5 United States Code (U.S.C) 552a. School
nurses coming to DoDEA from stateside public schools are familiar with the Family
Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) rules on protecting student privacy. The
FERPA rules are similar but not identical to the rules for implementing the PA. Both
Acts authorize the disclosure of a student’s records to the sponsor/parent/guardian of
the student unless the student is age 18 or older; however, there are differences when
it comes to disclosure of student records to third parties.
The Privacy Act requires that no school nurse may divulge information about a
student to anyone outside of DoDEA without sponsor/parent/guardian consent.
Additionally, no school nurse shall divulge student health related information to others
within DoDEA unless that disclosure is requested by another employee acting within the
scope of his or her authority and the information collected by DoDEA about the student
was collected for a similar purpose. A school nurse may need to consult with the
DoDEA Office of the General Counsel before disclosing any information about a student
to any person outside of DoDEA or for a purpose within DoDEA that is not compatible
with the reasons that DoDEA collected the information.
Similarly, DoDEA does not maintain records covered by the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), although records that may have been HIPPA-
protected, may find their way into DoDEA’s student health records. Nevertheless, the
PA requires that there be no unauthorized third party disclosures of any student
records, including records that relate to the student’s health, as noted above. The PA
allows disclosure of student records to the student and their sponsor/parent/guardian.
Reference:
Joint Guidance on the Application of the
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA)
and the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996