Confidentiality of Mental Health Treatment

The following information was shared by WI DPI Consultants at the 2011 State Superintendent Conference on Special Education and Pupil Services Leadership Issues.


Confidentiality of Mental Health Treatment
Many families with children who have been diagnosed with depression or other mental illnesses are reluctant to share this information with school personnel, due to the social stigma associated with mental illness, a lack of knowledge of school-based services, or possible concern regarding how the school will treat confidential information. Parent concerns regarding confidentiality need to be acknowledged as valid by school personnel.

With parental consent, school personnel may receive information from community-based health care professionals regarding a student’s treatment for mental illness. The school district has a responsibility to ensure that only authorized educators are given access to this information and that they abide by all appropriate laws related to pupil records, including patient health care records, Wis. Stat. sec. 118.125(2m). Penalties exist within the law for unauthorized disclosure of patient health care records. Any person, including the state or any political subdivision of the state, who negligently violates patient health care confidentiality provisions in secs. 146.82 or 146. 83 shall be liable to any person injured as a result of the violation for actual damages to that person, exemplary damages of not more than $1,000 and costs and reasonable actual attorney fees, Wis. Stat. sec. 146.84(1)(bm). Also, whoever negligently discloses confidential information in violation of sec. 146.82 can be fined up to $1,000 for each unauthorized disclosure. Wis. Stat. sec. 146.84(2)(b). Any person employed by the state or any political subdivision of the state may be suspended without pay or discharged for violations, Wis. Stat. sec. 146.84(3).

Pupil records shall be shared with licensed school district employees, law enforcement officers who are individually designated by the school board and assigned to the school district (i.e., police-school liaison officers), and other school district officials who have been determined by the school board to have legitimate educational interests, including safety interests, in the pupil records, Wis. Stat. sec. 118.125(2)(d). A common benchmark question used to determine if an individual has legitimate educational interests, including safety interests, in a pupil record is, “Does this person need this information to provide professional services to or for a student?”

Patient health care records may be redisclosed without additional parental consent, if the redisclosure is limited to the same purpose for which the patient health care record was initially received. Wis. Stat. sec. 146.82(5)(c)3. Consequently, even if a family limits the consent given to a physician to disclose their child’s patient health care records (e.g., diagnosis of mental illness) with only one (or a few) educator(s) at a school, under some circumstances, a redisclosure to other educators within the school may be allowed or required under the law.

If a student transfers to another school district, mental health treatment records may be transferred to the next school district consistent with Wis. Stat. sec. 118.125(4), Wis. Stat. sec. 51.30(4).

More information about confidentiality is available in the Department of Public Instruction publication Student Records and Confidentiality at http://www.dpi.wi.gov/sspw/srconfid03.html.