do teachers have the right to know if students are immunized and/or have communicable diseases?

Question

I work in a treatment facillity where most of these children are convicted fellons and/or are behaviorly disturbed. We have to physically restrain these children at times. They are not above scratching, bitting, or any other abuse they can inflict on us or themselves. The school follows state minimum guide line for first aid accessorries and such, but it is not efficient enough for what we are dealing with. I'm curios if there is any protection for teachers out there?

Answer 1

We do not find out if a child is immunized or not. However, if the child has an illness that could pose a threat to others we are informed that one child in our class could be contagious. We are not given names due to privacy laws, but we a given notice to treat every child with sterile techniques.

Answer 2

Immunized, yes. Communicable disease, no.

Immunizations are required in most cases in order to attend public schools. (But, there are still some exceptions to this-- religious objections, allergies to the vaccine, etc.)

But, communicable diseases are a different matter. This information is protected under HIPAA (which is legislation that was passed to protect your private health care information.) Teachers (as well as health professionals) should treat all students as though they had the potential to have a disease-- meaning using universal precautions with regard to vomit, blood, or any body fluid. Just like health care professionals do. This is mainly because just because you don't have a disease today, doesn't mean you won't have it tomorrow. Many people with communicable diseases don't even know if-- hepatitis for istance, as well as HIV-- not to mention the flu-- are all contagious before a person has symptoms.

Answer 3

Yes, you may know whether or not a child is immunized... most schools require it for entrance to the school (however, if the parents claim it is against their personal beliefs, the child can be exempt from getting the immunizations). You may not, however be privy to information regarding communicable diseases. That is against the child's confidentiality, and parents do NOT need to disclose whether or not their child has something like AIDS or Hepatitis. That is up to the parent's decision, and most often, for fear that their child will be treated differently or ostracized, they choose not to disclose that information. That is why it is SO important that you take precautions when you work with children. You never know what they may have, and you need to protect yourself. If in doubt, it is better to be safe that sorry. Refer to OSHA's guidelines for Univeral Precautions regarding the use of gloves, etc. to protect yourself.

Answer 4

Due to privacy rights, teachers do not have the right to know if students have HIV, etc. And if parents of the students tell the teacher, the teacher has no right to tell anyone, not the nurse or principal-- no one! The only thing the teacher can do is encourage the parent to notify the nurse for health reasons.

I worked in a charter school before and we were notified that there were possibly students who had HIV and we were told to always use precautions.

Answer 5

we should have the right to know a students medical history if it will effect the well being of the student or the classmates.If a student has seizures the teachers as well as the students will not freak out and know what is going on or know what to do to help the student.
The school where I was coaching would not tell us any medical history of any student.We had students that were allergic to bee stings,asthma,even heart problems some had seizures and we we not told due to student privacy laws.
The school where I am at now is different.They will let us know which students to watch out for during gym class.

Answer 6

yes well in canada your child has to have the immunizations to attend school, and yes most schools want to be informed if your child has a very contagious disease. But not if its just a regular cold.

Answer 7

Yes and no. Really the school administrators have a right to know if your child is at risk of infecting his/her classmates. If this is a public school it's matter of public health.