Parents Must Be Told Of Students’ Drug Use Some School Counselors Concerned About Effect Of New Law

The basis for any counseling relationship is trust the counselor will listen and will keep private what transpires.

But beginning this fall, counselors in Idaho public schools must notify parents if a child discloses drug use.

The law has Moscow High School Principal K.C. Albright worried it will affect his counselors’ ability to work with troubled students, especially those unwilling or unable to talk to their parents.

Albright is not advocating keeping parents in the dark, but said in some cases telling the parents right away is not the best option.

“If the student had a strong enough relationship with a parent they probably would have gone to them in the first place,” he said.

“There are a lot of students who credit the counselors with getting them into the treatment program they needed,” he said. “And we don’t want to lose that.”

The change has caused concern in other school districts, but many find that it is not that much of a policy change, said Claudia Hasselquist, coordinator of the Idaho Safe and Drug Free Schools program.

“Schools cannot solve this by themselves, they need to work with parents,” she said. “And some students do come from family backgrounds that aren’t the best, but at least the parents are notified and the school can still continue with the other programs it’s used.”

The reasoning behind the law is parents have a right to know health information about their children.

Jeanne Schatz, parent and drug education coordinator of the Meridian schools, sides with the parents.

“If it were my child I’d want to know,” she said. “And as a counselor I wouldn’t want the responsibility of deciding how many drugs a student is using and which ones are at risk. What if I kept something confidential and then a student continued to use and died - I wouldn’t want that weight on my shoulders.”