Schools giving out information to family members

We home school so that passing of the info thing is out the window with us.

I don't have a child, but I was just so excited to see I'm finally getting your discussion notifications that I had to let you know that. After years of never getting them....

I always write Mr. and Mrs. on my forms. It is the same with the doctors office. They gave me a list, and anyone I could put on it. If I can't get to the appointment, and someone else would take him, they cannot talk to them at all if they are not on that list. It does seem a bit silly, but then if it gets in the wrong hands, it could be a disaster.

I work at a preschool and that is our policy. If they're not listed as emergency contacts, are not parents or guardians then the amount of information that we can give out is very, very limited. We can only tell them so much until the parent/guardian/contact can be gotten ahold of. We just can never be sure who can and cannot know information. It's not to keep you happy it's to cover our behinds in case something happens.

My granddaughters school has rules like that....it's only to protect the kids....I think in this case though they could have given her the info...since they had the phone number where your brother was at....silly me thinks.

That seems right though as they don't really know if they are speaking to that person. I had a telephone call when my son attended school.It was his class teacher but she wasn't ringing about my son, it was about the little boy across the road who was friends with him and in his class. She had been unable to get the mother by phone and so told me he was ill and could his mother come for him! I was mortified that she had rung me to ask because what If someone else had answered instead of me? What if that person has gone to fetch him? would school have just accepted that they were asked to by the mother? You have to be so careful these days.

Having worked in a school...and with small children....I have to agree with what the school did and we would have done the same. Unless the name and person have been entered into the records by the parent, we do not pass on ANY kind of information. One never knows the equation between relatives...and there are lots of wierdos out there in the world. Better safe than sorry. We had one of our school children almost kidnapped by someone who stopped the bus and said he was her father...and this girl knew the person so she nodded when asked if it was her dad. Fortunately, one of the attenders was smart enough to make a phonecall back to school to confirm the matter. The school authorities immediately called up the parent who was in the office and had not sent anyone to pick up the child. We were so lucky that the attender thought of calling the school authorities. One can never be too safe with little children.

I understand your frustration but the school does not know your family situation. Some families would not want another member knowing anything. My family is very open, we are all on our kids' lists. But schools have to have blanket policies and most of the time they seem ridiculous. But think of it like warning labels, you may not try to dry your hair in the bath tub, but somebody else has already tried!

Its not as silly as you think. Since schools have this kind of privacy policy, there are parents that might actually get mad for them giving any kind of information to someone they haven't authorized it too. It may seem like dramatic overkill to you, because you would have been okay with it, but place the wrong parent in your situation, and the school is looking at a lawsuit.

Lilybug! I got it! Here the privacy laws are very strict and the same situation would have occorred. If you think about it for a minute, anyone, just anyone, could have answered and told the school that they were your brother's wife.

OMG I finally got a notification for one of your discussions!! Woohoo! That's exciting! I think there is probably a very strict policy about releasing any sort of medical information, I know there is at the hospitals. Whenever the school has had to call me they've left a message on my machine saying to call the nurse, but they don't say why. I've listed the kid's grandparents, but I put both names, not just one, so hopefully we never run into this problem.

The schools around here are just the oppisite. You have to worry about people being able to pick them up and they don't worry much about what they tell anyone. They have called and tolf the receptionist at work that my child was ill. That was a good thing because I could go get her but I thought it was strange that they would go into detail.

My daughter's school does have a policy like this and I really feel that it is for the best. I can understand that it feels like a minor thing to say that your child has a fever, but they really could have been talking to anyone and they don't want to give out any information on their students to someone that they don't have a clue who it is. This kind of information even saying that "Jimmie has a fever," could end up being detrimental in the long run.

All schools should have this policy. It is part of the HIPPA act. They are not allowed to disclose any information to anyone other than those who are authorized on the medical emergency card. One time i forgot to put my husband on his son's card (my stepson) and they would not give him any information becuase he was not authorized. Funny/silly as it may sound, they have to do it for their protection as well as the child's protection. One way around that for you would be to put down your brother & sister in law as Mr. & Mrs ______. That way they could give the information to either of them as long as you are ok with her knowing.

Actually I would have to agree with what the school did by not giving her any information about your son. If they would of gave her information and you found out about it and called complaining to the school that she had no right knowing about your son because you did not put her for an emergency contact you may have grounds for a lawsuit. This helps protect the school from any liability.

These days alot of policies are taken too literally or are just silly within themselves. A silly policy can be not so bad if administered by a sensible person who can see beyond the silliness and do what is logical. But even a good policy can be made ridiculous when administered by silly personnel. When my son was sick at school they called my husband who does not have a car when I'm at work and wanted him to WALK to the school and pick up our child. Sure the school is within walking distance, but the child is SICK. Do you really want a sick child trying to walk 5, 6 blocks home? I purposely have TWO other local contacts, both specifically marked as OK to pickup (pickup the child that is), but my husband had to call ME and tell me what was going on. Then I called the contacts myself and arranged the ride. And then called the school and told them who was picking my son up. Ridiculous! (I work an hour away from home which is why I couldn't run and get him myself)

Yes I understand your frustration it is a silly policy, but the only way to protect the school. Also it is there to protect your child. If there was a family member not wanted to know that your child is now riding the bus to grandmas then that would keep them from calling and finding this information out.