Privacy, Informed Consent, Confidentiality, and Record Keeping / Test Instruments

Privacy is a legal obligation

May be given up in cases such as abuse

But you have to tell participants before you start

 - likely consequences

 - what can be done to minimize consequences

Two lawsuits came out of the Tarasoff Case (the college student who killed his girlfriend, and the counselor knew he had threatened to do it.)

1: Duty to warn.

2: Duty to protect.

Collaboration: when in a collaborative group or team, or even in a dyadic session, be sure the necessity of confidentiality is known by everyone in the group. Remember the principle of “need to know” – some of the child’s life incidents may not be necessary knowledge in the current case at hand.

Privileged communication: those special relationships (legal) such as husband/wife, attorney/client, etc. where confidentiality can not be broken. This is different in every state regarding psychologists. Child abuse, etc. would still be an exception.

In the absence of privileged communication, and you refuse to talk in court, you can be held in contempt. – if you are to talk, you must explain to the court that this is confidential information, etc.

Records keeping in the schools.

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974

Educational records are those records that are maintained by the school about specific students. Parents have the right to inspect.

Directory Information: General information (name, addy, phone, degrees, etc.) are releasable, unless a parent says no – so yes, they can sell your name and address.

Private Notes: Notes which have NEVER been seen by anyone except yourself. Raw test data, test protocols (answer sheets), etc. can not be seen as private notes.

If a state allows a sch-psych the privilege of confidential info, then private notes can be withheld from the court.

The school must reveal to the parent within 45 days any information requested. Parents can request to amend any records they feel are inaccurate or misleading or if they feel the records violate the privacy rights of the student.

Access to test protocols:  These are not private notes, and parents have a right to see them, however, they are under copyright laws – the rights of the parents are the higher of the two rights.

Testing vs. Assessment.  Assessment looks at more than just a test, but the whole child and his surroundings, etc.

Assessments should be multi-faceted; fair; lack bias; all tests should be valid for the purpose;

Test Instruments:

Reliability:

Test-Retest Reliability: getting the same answer each time – you can up the results by re-testing after too short of a time.

Internal Consistency reliability – administer the test one time, and compare two halves of the test. (more reliable than test-retest)

For group tests, you are looking for .65 or better. (IOWA, etc.)

Screening instruments - .80-.85 (K-Bit [a brief intelligence test])

Validity – does it measure what they say it does.

Three kinds of validity:

Content related validity:  Are the questions a fair sample from the domain they represent.

Criterion related validity: comparing the test scores on the test you are creating with another test you believe measures the same thing.

Concurrent Criterion Related Validity: the two tests are given at the same time.

Predictive Related Validity: the future event (college GPA) is correlated to the test (SAT in High School).

Construct Related Validity: Happens last

Adequacy of test norms: norms should be based on a representative sample of the target population you are working with. Norms must be up to date, and appropriate for the child you are evaluating. Do you need specialized instruments?

If you have reservations about a test instrument, and must use it, then you should mention that in your report.

The purpose of assessment is for intervention. NOT eligibility.

Projective tests: Rorschach, fill in the blank, etc. Not appropriate to use in school settings. Used years ago. Highly intrusive, requires extensive training. Lacks educational relevance.

In California it is against the law to give IQ test for determining eligibility.

Filed under: EDC 572 Role & Function of the School Psychologist
Copyright: September, 2003 - David Profitt