It is the one thing when I talk to teachers
on the day that they're hired, the teachers and I sit down and have a
conversation about expectations and
requirements for the job, and all those nitty gritty things
that we haven't had a time to talk about. That's one of the things
that is very cut and dry. If you
breached confidentiality, you will be let go.
There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It doesn't matter how it happened or why it happened.
If you talk to a parent about another child
you will be let go. Those policies are not only in our parent handbook
and our staff handbook. We want parents to know that
we want them to understand those confidentiality rules as well
as we want our teachers to really respect them and understand that
there's no room for leniency with confidentiality.
Cute little girl.
She is the cutest little girl. She always makes you smile when you see her.
You're thinking of posting her picture on your personal Facebook page to share
this adorable little girl with your friends. Is it ok to post pictures
of the children you work with on your personal Facebook page?
No. Posting pictures on your personal Facebook
page is a breach of confidentiality. Written permission from
parents is needed before posting pictures of children on any website.
A two year old girl bit a boy today. When his
mom arrives, you tell her that he was bitten by another child today.
She wants to know the name of the child who bit her son.
Should you tell his mom who bit him? What could you
say to his mom?
I need to follow rules for professional confidentiality, which means
that I can't tell you the name of the child who bit your son. It's not unusual
for two year olds to bite, but that doesn't make biting acceptable.
I'll be working more closely with the child who bit your son to keep your
son and all the children here safe. If he is
able to speak, he'll likely tell his mom the name of the child who bit him.
It's ok if she learns that information from her child or another child,
but as a professional, the name of the other child is confidential and
shouldn't be shared by you. I expect
any of my staff members, above all, confidentiality.
These children come to us with a background and we have to
keep everything confidential.
A child in your room tells you that his dad and mom were fighting last night.
Dad walked out of the house with a suitcase and said he wasn't coming back.
Does anyone else need to know this information?
The information shared by this child should be considered confidential
and not shared unless other professionals need this information
in their work with this child and family.
The family of a child in your room recently had a house fire and lost most
of their belongings. A week later, a person approaches you in the grocery store,
asks how the child and family are doing, offers to help the family,
and asks if you would tell where the family is now staying. How should you
respond? Even though this person
may want to help a family in need, you still need to keep private information
about children and families confidential. You should tell
the person that information about the children and families in your care is confidential
and you're not allowed to discuss it. You may want to suggest
that the person write down his name and contact information for you to give
to the parents. Maintaining confidentiality is
very important. You work with a lot of different families from a lot of different backgrounds
and sometimes they feel comfortable sharing information with us. It's important that we
keep that safety and keep that confidentiality, because otherwise they won't
trust us in the future.