If you have kids in public schools, you’ve likely just finished or are about to start the annual document marathon. You’ve got forms to name emergency contacts, forms to sign assuring the school that your child will follow the rules and that you are aware of the consequences if he doesn’t, forms approving technology access, forms to identify whether your child will be riding the bus, and so on.
Then there are the medical forms. Does your child have any medication he needs to take during school hours? Can he be given Tylenol if required? What is your pediatrician’s phone number?
Now, some schools are forbidding nurses to give your child a bandage unless you give specific and explicit permission.
Tennessee Passes Legislation Requiring Parental Permissions For Basic Care
Here and there over the years, there has been an incident in which a school employee has helped a teenager access medical care, resulting in an abortion. Health classes also typically teach (after sending home permission forms) about contraceptives. Where it’s legal for adolescents to access these medications without parental permission, health departments and other medical entities may partner with schools to ensure kids have access.
This has so terrified some parents and legislators that the state of Tennessee has passed what it calls the “Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act” to “ensure[] parental rights receive the same level of protection as free speech, religious liberty, and other fundamental rights.” (Notably, “parental rights” are not, like free speech and religious liberty, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.)
What, Specifically, Does The Legislation Cover?
Well, it doesn’t specifically address bandaids and ice packs.
The legislation is intended to address parental rights over 12 specific aspects of their child’s life, including religious instruction; access to any mental and physical health care records; to choose between public, private, spiritual, and homeschooling; to inspect all school records; and the relevant one here:
“To make all physical and mental healthcare decisions for the child and consent to all physical and mental health care on the child’s behalf.”
(There are also some more bizarre inclusions about the right to control electroencephalogram data, information about posture and eye-tracking, and any DNA or biometric information.)
Why Is Parental Consent An Issue Here?
Wanting to be consulted before your child is given medical treatment is pretty reasonable, especially since doctors, too, can make mistakes and may proceed without the awareness of an allergy or other medical condition. The question that arises is, where’s the line?
What care, exactly, should an emergency room doctor or a school nurse be able to provide if the parent can’t be reached? An ER doc or EMT is, naturally, going to give stabilizing care immediately because you cannot wait for consent to save a life. Yet there have been lawsuits over blood transfusions, which certain religious groups believe in refusing.
A school nurse, then? What can she do? Can she take your child’s temperature? Give him a bandaid? Offer an ice pack? What about handing him a bottle of water when he’s gotten overheated on the playground?
One school district is erring on the side of caution and avoiding lawsuits by taking their interpretation of the law to an extreme level.
Kingsport City Schools Announce New Consent Rule
This Tennessee school district has sent parents letters warning them that they’ll need to content if their child needs so much as a bandaid, according to WJHL. After the parents complained, Assistant Superintendent Andy True explained his point of view on protecting the school from legal action. He said:
“Whereas in the past it was, you know, consent may be for medication, to be able to take an Advil or those types of things, the way we are being guided on the interpretation of the law is that treatment this year would need to be covered by that consent, things like band-aids, ice packs, those sorts of things.”
He’s hoping to get consent forms on file in advance. That way, if a child has a scraped knee or a bumped head, the kid won’t have to wait until someone can contact their parents before being given the most basic treatment.
A Nurse’s Perspective On The Higher Risks
Even outside of the extreme situation in which a child can’t even have a little help stopping a scraped elbow from bleeding, medical professionals are warning that this legislation puts kids at risk. For teens, it can mean that they choose to hide health issues and let them go untreated because of the fear of their parents finding out. One nurse, Robin Cogan, writing on her website, The Relentless School Nurse, put it this way:
“This could lead to a decline in the use of preventive health services, resulting in higher rates of unplanned pregnancies, untreated STIs, and other health issues among this vulnerable population.”
