The school environment poses competing interests between a student’s need for confidentiality and the legal rights of parents, as established by the U.S. Supreme Court, to be the guiding voice in their children’s lives in value-laden issues. Participants will develop an ethical decision-making framework for analyzing and resolving ethical issues through the application of American School Counselor Association Ethical Standards, case and statutory law, school board rules and community standards. Through small-group and large-group discussion of 40 case studies, participants will be given the opportunity to increase their understanding of the complexities of respecting a minor’s right to confidentiality, to develop a sensitivity to the need to consider their actions in context of each situation for each individual student and to understand the rights of parents. Discussion topics will include areas such as confidentiality and duty to warn, minors’ rights to privacy, counselors’ responsibilities toward suicidal children, civil and criminal liability, sexually active minor clients, birth control, abortion counseling, defamation, child abuse, HIV-positive students, case notes and educational records, malpractice in academic advising, sexual harassment, the Hatch Amendment and guidance curriculum and personal conduct.

This presentation will be presented by Dr. Carolyn Stone (Professor, Counselor Education, University of North Florida, ASCA Ethical Chair, and Past President)