Responsibility to the School Community:
Confidentiality
Federal law requires educational agencies to guarantee each student basic privacy rights. Furthermore, the Tennessee Teacher Code of Ethics states that the educator "shall not disclose information about the student obtained in the course of the educator's professional service, unless disclosure of the information is permitted, serves a compelling professional purpose, or is required by law." (49-5-1003.12) To maintain these rights, schools are required to have guidelines for collecting, maintaining, disseminating, and verifying the accuracy of information that they collect. But what happens when that information is collected through a private conversations with a student?
While it is important that our students have confidence in their conversations with us will be held confidentiality, parents have legal rights. It is our obligation to follow the law. If in a similar situation, you feel that the information that was shared to you by the student would harm the student if shared with the parent, your ethically correct choice is to report it to your administrator.