Background
All Ontario public institutions, including our school district, are legally obligated to have a privacy and access to information policy. Our current policy, established in 2010, needs modernization to align with recent changes in writing style and address issues encountered over the past decade. This policy supports creating a workplace culture that respects privacy, has accountability mechanisms for privacy breaches and ensures high standards to protect student health information.Proposed Revisions
The most significant change to the policy relates to the collection, use and disclosure of student health information.
The proposed revisions clarify that records created by health care practitioners employed by the District (such as social workers, psychologists and speech language pathologists) are under the custody and control of the District, rather than the individual practitioners. This is intended to clarify that the District holds the role of Health Information Custodian (HIC) for these records.
Why is this important?
- By clarifying that the OCDSB is the custodian of student health records, we will ensure that these records are managed consistently, even when the staff who provided the health care services are no longer employed by the District.
- As the Health Information Custodian, the OCDSB will follow obligations outlined in the province's Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA).
- Access to the records will be based on the provisions of PHIPA, rather than those outlined in the Municipal Freedom Of Information And Protection Of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). This change affirms that students under the age of 16 who have the capacity to do so have the right to withhold consent for the disclosure of their health records to parents or guardians.
For more information on the proposed revisions, see the documents below:
