[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2859 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2859
To amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 to
clarify limits on disclosure of student health records, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 15, 2008
Mr. Webb (for himself and Mr. Warner) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 to
clarify limits on disclosure of student health records, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act Amendments of 2008''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Federal authorities charged with examining the tragic
shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007 found that confusion
and overly-restrictive interpretations of Federal privacy laws,
State medical confidentiality laws, and regulations
unnecessarily impede the effective transfer of information that
could prove useful in averting tragedies. Some school
administrators are unaware of exceptions to Federal privacy
laws that could allow relevant information about a student's
mental health to be appropriately shared.
(2) The purpose of this Act is to eliminate ambiguity in
Federal education privacy law to ensure that the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is not
interpreted as prohibiting information sharing between on-
campus and off-campus health care providers when both are
involved in treating a student. Such ``consults'' are generally
permitted by State medical confidentiality law, and FERPA
should not be interpreted as posing an additional obstacle. The
Virginia Tech Review Panel recommended that changes to ``FERPA
should explicitly explain how it applies to medical records
held for treatment purposes''. The panel reported that
misinterpretation of how student treatment records are handled
under FERPA as the main source of confusion. FERPA protects the
privacy of both student education records and student treatment
records from being disclosed generally.
(3) The Virginia Tech Review Panel recommended that Federal
privacy laws should be amended to include ``safe harbor''
provisions that would insulate a person or organization from
the loss of Federal education funding for making a disclosure
with a good faith belief that the disclosure was necessary to
protect the health or safety of a student or member of the
public at large. The Commission further recommended that the
Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) be
amended to clarify the ability of educational institutions to
disclose information in emergency situations and to facilitate
treatment of students at off-campus facilities.
(4) Mental disorders frequently begin during youth.
Research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health
found that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin
by age 14; three quarters have begun by age 24.
(5) In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reported 4,316 suicides among young adults aged 15-24, making
it the third leading cause of death in this age group. There
were an additional 5,074 suicides among those aged 25-34,
making it the second leading cause of death in this age group.
(6) Depression, mental illness, and suicide are problems on
college campuses. In 2006, 44 percent of college students
reported feeling so depressed it was difficult to function and
9 percent seriously considered suicide, according to a 2006
national survey conducted by the American College Health
Association.
(7) While most people in the United States with a mental
disorder eventually seek treatment, a National Institute of
Mental Health study found pervasive and lengthy delays in
getting treatment, with the median delay across disorders being
nearly a decade. Over a 12-month period, 60 percent of those
with a mental disorder got no treatment at all.
(8) A 2006 survey sponsored by the American College
Counseling Association found that 9 percent of enrolled
students sought counseling last year and 92 percent of
counseling center directors reported an increase in the number
of students with severe psychological disorders.
(9) Recent events, including the campus shootings at the
Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois universities, have further
highlighted the deadly problems of mental illness and violence
in American schools. The Northern Illinois shooting resulted in
6 deaths while the Virginia Tech killings left 32 people dead,
making it the most lethal school shooting in United States
history.
SEC. 3. STUDENT HEALTH RECORDS.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C.
1232g) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(k) Consultation With Off Campus Medical Professionals.--Nothing
in this section shall prohibit a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist,
or other recognized healthcare professional or paraprofessional acting
in the individual's professional or paraprofessional capacity, or
assisting in that capacity, from consulting with or disclosing records
described in subsection (a)(4)(B)(iv) with respect to a student, to a
physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or other recognized healthcare
professional or paraprofessional acting in the individual's
professional or paraprofessional capacity, or assisting in that
capacity, outside the educational agency or institution in connection
with the provision of treatment to the student.''.
SEC. 4. SAFE HARBOR PROVISION.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C.
1232g) is amended in subsection (f) by adding at the end the following:
``The release by an educational agency or institution of education
records or personally identifiable information contained in such
records in the good faith belief that such release is necessary to
protect against a potential threat to the health or safety of the
student or other persons, shall not be deemed a failure to comply with
this section regardless of whether it is subsequently determined that
the specified conditions for such release did not exist.''.
SEC. 5. EMERGENCY EXCEPTION AMENDMENT.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C.
1232g) is amended in subsection (b)(1)(I) by striking ``is necessary''
and all that follows and inserting ``is necessary, according to the
good faith belief of the educational agency or institution or persons
to whom such disclosure is made, to protect against a potential threat
to the health or safety of the student or other persons; and''.
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