Student Privacy and Mental Health: What Can and Must Be Disclosed

Agenda / Content Covered

Session Time: 2:00 PM - 4:15 PM Central
Break: 3:00 PM - 3:15 PM Central
Presenter: Mary S. Gerbig and Emily Turzinski

1. Student Confidentiality: Exceptions and Mandatory Reporting
2. Social Media Use and Student Mental Health: School Legal Duties and Limitations
   1. Social Media and Student Anxiety, Stress, Depression
   2. COPPA: What can Schools Monitor and When?
   3. Can Schools Request a Student's Login Information?
   4. Search and Seizure and Video Surveillance Issues When a Student is at Risk
   5. Sample Social Media Policies and Guidelines
   6. Lessons From Recent Court Cases
3. FERPA: Making Safety Disclosures Without Consent
4. Schools and Mental Health Professionals: The Interplay Between HIPAA and FERPA
5. Communicating With Other Schools About Mental Health Conditions
   1. What Can They Know, Ask About?
   2. What They Should Know, Care About
   3. When and How Can They Share What They Know About a Student's Mental Health?
6. Communicating with Parents: Legal Requirements
   1. What Can and Must be Disclosed
   2. Documenting Every Effort to Notify Parents
   3. Texts, Chatting and Other Informal Communication: Legal Risks
   4. Dealing with Recalcitrant Parents or Parents in Denial
   5. Responding to Concerns Raised by Parents of Other Students

MARY S. GERBIG is an attorney with Buelow Vetter Buikema Olson & Vliet, LLC. Ms. Gerbig serves as counsel to numerous school districts throughout Wisconsin on general school law, special education, and labor and employment matters. The primary client base she serves includes school districts, Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESA) and other municipal employers. Ms. Gerbig regularly represents school districts in student special education, and discrimination hearings and mediations under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). She earned her B.A. degree, with honors, from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; and her J.D. degree, cum laude, from Marquette University Law School.

EMILY TURZINSKI is an attorney with Buelow Vetter Buikema Olson & Vliet, LLC, a firm that serves as general counsel for a wide variety of public schools and higher education institutions throughout the state of Wisconsin. Ms. Turzinski focuses her practice on advising public and private schools on matters of general school law and special education law, as well as labor and employment law. She earned her B.A. degree from Marquette University and her J.D. degree from Marquette University Law School.