Teens, Sex and High School Health Centers
Seattle Public Schools, via our generous voters and the City's Families and Education Levy, funds a health center in every comprehensive high school in the district (and I believe one there are four at middle schools).
Correction (I had not reviewed my notes thoroughly but the following is correct): In Washington State, minors can consent to reproductive health services at any age without parental consent. In addition, youth ages 13 and over can consent to their own mental health treatment. Parental consent is needed for other health services. (And the sheet sent home is that consent form.)
There is not an M.D. on site but there are nurses.
And what a lot of services: routine/sports physicals, immunizations, vision/hearing screenings, dental referrals,mental health counseling, and wellness counseling. They are hoping to offer dental services at some locations. (Note; there is a special notification for immunization services.) Folks, this is a great gift that voters have given SPS students, for whom some might not ever see a health care professional.
And yes, contraceptive services are available.
Your son or daughter has access to condoms (usually in a basket by the door, no questions asked), birth control, pregnancy testing, Plan B and abortion services. The staff always counsels students to talk with their parents and get them involved but yes, if the authorization sheet is signed, you do not have to be contacted for your child to receive this information.
Also new in the area of birth control is an app from Planned Parenthood (this via the NY Times).
One goal of the national Planned Parenthood organization is to be there for those young people — to, as Leslie Kantor, vice president for education at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, put it “reach them in their urgent moment of need.” Their solution was to offer live counselors able to answer questions either by text or through online chat, and their research, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, shows that the new program has been successful, reaching more than 250,000 people since it began in September 2010.
On Monday to Thursday, from 9 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. to midnight (all times Eastern), 20 well-trained staff members take questions. “Our staff have to be very good at assessing the question behind the question,” Ms. Kantor said. “Frequently people present with an anxiety that may be based on misinformation. They’re assuming they’re already pregnant when the condom broke 10 minutes ago.”
One advantage of offering an expert instead of an information bank is that a staff member can ask another person questions to figure out what’s really going on, or can make sure that an anxious person really understood an answer, and can rephrase it if necessary.
Correction (I had not reviewed my notes thoroughly but the following is correct): In Washington State, minors can consent to reproductive health services at any age without parental consent. In addition, youth ages 13 and over can consent to their own mental health treatment. Parental consent is needed for other health services. (And the sheet sent home is that consent form.)
There is not an M.D. on site but there are nurses.
And what a lot of services: routine/sports physicals, immunizations, vision/hearing screenings, dental referrals,mental health counseling, and wellness counseling. They are hoping to offer dental services at some locations. (Note; there is a special notification for immunization services.) Folks, this is a great gift that voters have given SPS students, for whom some might not ever see a health care professional.
And yes, contraceptive services are available.
Your son or daughter has access to condoms (usually in a basket by the door, no questions asked), birth control, pregnancy testing, Plan B and abortion services. The staff always counsels students to talk with their parents and get them involved but yes, if the authorization sheet is signed, you do not have to be contacted for your child to receive this information.
Also new in the area of birth control is an app from Planned Parenthood (this via the NY Times).
One goal of the national Planned Parenthood organization is to be there for those young people — to, as Leslie Kantor, vice president for education at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, put it “reach them in their urgent moment of need.” Their solution was to offer live counselors able to answer questions either by text or through online chat, and their research, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, shows that the new program has been successful, reaching more than 250,000 people since it began in September 2010.
On Monday to Thursday, from 9 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. to midnight (all times Eastern), 20 well-trained staff members take questions. “Our staff have to be very good at assessing the question behind the question,” Ms. Kantor said. “Frequently people present with an anxiety that may be based on misinformation. They’re assuming they’re already pregnant when the condom broke 10 minutes ago.”
One advantage of offering an expert instead of an information bank is that a staff member can ask another person questions to figure out what’s really going on, or can make sure that an anxious person really understood an answer, and can rephrase it if necessary.
Comments
Also, having met in the course of my job some very desperate teen mothers, you better believe I signed the fullest range of permissions for all of my kids so that they had access to non-judgmental birth control if they needed it. These centers deserve our fullest support. Parents who are uncomfortable with the range of care they offer can always opt out, though it's some of THOSE kids who need access the most.
Grateful Mom
Group Health Coorperative
International Community Health Services (ICHS)
Neighborcare Health
Odessa Brown Childrens Clinic
Public Health Seattle/King County
Swedish
To clarify, they are staffed by nurse practitioners (NPs), not registered nurses (RNs).
Student health centers and drop-out rate study.
http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1107551
PSP
You responded to mirmac's question, but you didn't answer it. You gave the "politician's answer", which usually happens when the real answer is unpleasant or worse (illegal).
1) Do these 3rd parties get student PII without parental consent?
2) Can students under the age of 18 give consent for the transfer of this information? (presumably not legally)
There are other issues surrounding xfer, storage, retention, and who else, if anyone, can access this data; but I presume those are tied to HIPAA regulations. However, the question of whether data is transferred without parental consent stands.
Mom of 4
I'm making reference to requests for access to info on the Source. Plus, possibly FRL, discipline and disability status.
This kind of info in the hands of someone who does not know the family situation, the degree of disability and its manifestations, and the reasons for discipline, the supply of this info can be inflammatory.
Mom of 4 - some unasked for advice. Let your kids have free access to birth control at school, and then continue to have open conversations with them about sex. Hopefully, they will come to you before needing to use the free condom. But a wise mama once said to me that you should assume your kid IS going to try things - sex, drugs and rock and roll - and they will find a way around it, or worse, have sex without the condom.
High School Mama
As you can see, minors can self-consent under certain circumstances - e.g. for the treatment of STDs and birth control services. Minors over the age of 14 can access this care at school based health centers, Planned Parenthood, etc.
I visit the school based health centers in the context of my job, and my daughter is a patient at one of the middle school clinics. Both professionally and personally, I hold these health care providers in the highest regard. They have seen it all and they know what they're doing, let me tell you.
Mom of 4, if kids are sick during school they can see the school nurse. School based health center providers are entirely separate and offer different services like sports physicals and immunizations.
Teens have been having sex since time began. Let's keep them safe from STDs and unwanted pregnancies. The world does not need any more teen mothers, and no teen should have to make the difficult choice of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy.
We would all love our children to wait until they are in a deep, committed relationship before having sex, but hormones are a powerful thing.
Solvay Girl