Confidentiality of Your Child’s Vaccination Records
Schools may NOT disclose the vaccination record of your child,
even to the Department of Health,
unless in a narrowly defined emergency situation.
Please read this thoroughly. Although many people immediately think of HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) when they are concerned about privacy of medical records, the information contained in any education record in any school that receives federal funds is exempt from HIPAA requirements and only subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This includes information such as vaccine exemption status that you may submit for school entry.
For more detailed information on FERPA as it applies to vaccination records, please read this Letter to Alabama Department of Education re: Disclosure of Immunization Records from the FERPA Online Library; the letter can also be downloaded as an msword document here. MS Word (39 KB)
If you believe that your child’s privacy has been violated, you must file a complaint within 180 days to:
Family Compliance Office
US. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20202-5920
FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive federal funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education and gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records including vaccination records that you submit to the school. YOUR rights include:
- The right to inspect and review the student’s education records maintained by the school. Schools are only required to provide a copy of the record when it is impossible for the recipient to review the records as in cases where they are a great distance from the school. The school may charge a fee for copies they provide.
- The right to request that a school correct records which they believe to be inaccurate or misleading. If the school decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student then has the right to a formal hearing. After the hearing, if the school still decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student has the right to place a statement with the record setting forth their opinion regarding the contested information.
- Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student’s education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to certain parties or under certain conditions:
◦ They may release to school officials with legitimate educational interest;
◦ They may release to other schools to which a student is transferring;
◦ They may release to specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
◦ They may release to appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
◦ They may release to organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
◦ They may release to accrediting organizations;
◦ They may release in order to comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
◦ They may release to appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
◦ They may release to state and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.
Schools may disclose, without consent, information such as a student’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance but they must tell the parents, guardians and/or eligible students about the directory information and allow them a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose this information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.
Schools may NOT disclose the vaccination record of your child, even to the Department of Health, unless in a narrowly defined emergency situation.
For more detailed information on FERPA as it applies to vaccination records, please read this Letter to Alabama Department of Education re: Disclosure of Immunization Records from the FERPA Online Library; the letter can also be downloaded as an msword document here. MS Word (39 KB)
HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
The United States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) actually has two sections, Title I and Title II.Title I deals with the protection of health insurance coverage for those people who lose or change jobs. Title II deals with the standardization of healthcare-related information systems. It requires medical providers to ensure that they protect the privacy and security of their patients’ medical information and also that they use a standard format when submitting electronic transactions, such as submitting claims to payers.
HIPAA seeks to establish standardized mechanisms for electronic data interchange, security, and confidentiality of all healthcare-related data. The Act mandates: standardized formats for all patient health, administrative, and financial data; unique identifiers (ID numbers) for each healthcare entity, including individuals, employers, health plans and health care providers; and security mechanisms to ensure confidentiality and data integrity for any information that identifies an individual.
The compliance date for HIPAA’s Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, known as the Privacy Rule, was April 2003. The Privacy Rule governs the use and disclosure of protected health information by “covered entities”. Health care providers, health plans and health care clearinghouses are covered entities. Since most registries (IIS) do not perform covered functions (e.g. direct service payments), they are not required to comply with HIPAA. However, maintaining the privacy and security of immunization data has been and continues to be a major priority of registry developers and public health personnel nationwide.
To read more about HIPPA, please visit: https://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hipaa.htm.
To file a complaint against a license medical professional for violation of your medical privacy rights in Vermont, please, go to: http://vtprofessionals.org/conduct/All_Professions_Complaint_Form.pdf