What information may be disclosed in compassionate circumstances?

When there is a need to notify a close relative, friend or spouse about a student who is injured, ill or deceased, school boards may disclose personal information without consent in order to facilitate or enable contact.⁴⁶ For example, if a young student is ill and the student’s parent cannot be reached, the school may decide it needs to disclose this information to someone at the parent’s workplace to help make contact with the parent. The information disclosed by the school should be limited to only that which will “facilitate contact” – in this case, it means that the school could disclose to the parent’s workplace that the child was ill and needs to be picked up, but should not disclose the nature of the illness or other details.

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