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Committee moves updated student health-records policy to full board with immediate implementation
Summary
Bridgeport School District Policy & Personnel Committee voted to forward an update to student health and medical-records policy—adding HIPAA- and FERPA-related language and standardized authorization forms—and instructed staff to replace an individual name with a job title as the district’s HIPAA privacy officer.
The Bridgeport School District Policy and Personnel Committee on March 12 voted to send an updated student health and medical-records policy to the full board with a waiver of first and second readings so it can take effect immediately.
Dr. Sacchi, presenting the change, said the district will keep its existing student-health policy (Policy 5151) and add a new subsection titled student health/medical records (Policy 5125/512511). He said the update “includes specific language around the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA, of 1996” and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and will provide a sample HIPAA-compliant authorization for release of health information.
Committee members discussed who should be named as the district’s HIPAA privacy officer. Miss Ibanez asked that the policy not list a person’s name and requested that the named individual, Lisette Early, be replaced with a position title. Dr. Sacchi agreed, saying the policy “should say the Board of Education designates the school health supervisor as HIPAA privacy officer.” The committee formalized that change in a motion.
The committee recorded that the district’s current health-records policy had last been updated in April 2012. Committee members asked for confirmation that legal review and standard vetting had occurred; Dr. Sacchi said the language had been legally vetted. No public comments were recorded during the item.
The committee’s vote to forward the item to the full board included a request that the full board place the revised policy on its agenda for immediate implementation.
The committee also asked staff to ensure any named contact information or form placeholders included in the policy packet are completed before full-board presentation.
