Tools to Support School Health Information Sharing

Information sharing and coordination of care across the health and educational sectors is often limited by lack of consent which can result in gaps in care and missed opportunities for integrated, aligned support for families. To meet the needs of states and/or local communities and the privacy requirements for both health and education sectors, including under Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), an information sharing consent form template and Implementation Toolkit can be found below.

Template Consent Form for Communication and Information Sharing Between School and Health Care Teams

Experts from both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) collaborated to develop a FERPA- and HIPAA-compliant information sharing agreement template consent form to facilitate cross-sector communication and coordination of care for chronic condition management. The template form is designed to facilitate communication between schools and the primary medical home and is adaptable to different scenarios and jurisdictions.

This template form is available in two formats. First, as a fillable PDF where it can be used as is. Second, as a Word document that allows local communities to customize it to meet their needs.

Included is additional information for families that addresses commonly asked questions to help families better understand why schools and health care providers are asking for consent to share information about their child. This resource can be found on page 3 of the template form.

Template Consent Form

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for how to use this form

How does this form relate to existing consent forms that educational and health systems may use for information sharing?

School and health professionals often find that lack of consent for one or both sectors hinders coordination of care. Even if the school has received consent for information sharing, the healthcare provider often requires their own consent (or vice versa), causing hassle and headache for families and professionals. One of the main goals of this consent will thus be to meet the privacy and information sharing requirements of the school as well as the health care partner, so that one consent form can serve both sectors’ needs to allow coordination of care. Schools or health systems may choose to customize the template form to meet specific policies or practices within their respective consent processes.

Is the intention that this document will be signed by the family twice – at both the school and in the health care office?

This process is at the discretion of local teams.
However, when feasible, it is the goal to only require one consent form with the two signatures from a family to meet the information sharing release needs of both FERPA and HIPAA. To meet this goal, the school or health care office would be expected to share the completed consent – or resignation of consent – with the other.

This consent appears to be fairly open-ended in terms of the types of information that can be shared and the personnel in the school and health care office who may receive this information. Why is it not more specific?

To allow systematic coordination of care, the template form was designed to be inclusive. Please review the complementary documents and Implementation Toolkit for additional information on the importance of clear and consistent communication to the family on what data will be shared, with whom, and why.
Users may customize the template form to make it more specific, if desired.

Implementation Toolkit

AAP and NASN experts developed an Implementation Toolkit with a variety of resources for school health professionals and community providers to support implementation of the information sharing consent form template.

Download

See below for more information on each of the resources in the Toolkit.

Commonly Asked Questions about Improving Your Information-Sharing Process Between Schools and Health Care Providers
This document seeks to address commonly asked questions for schools and health care providers as they partner to coordinate care for shared students/patients.

Bidirectional Consent: Planning and Implementation Checklist
This checklist may be used to guide your team as you create or update forms and processes for FERPA- and HIPAA- compliant consent to facilitate information sharing between schools and health care providers.

Bidirectional Communication Environmental Scan
This tool helps you to understand and document your current processes related to care coordination, communication and information sharing. Discussions and the resulting responses to the questions can guide your improvement efforts.

Five Things to Remember about FERPA/HIPAA
These two documents include quick facts about FERPA and HIPAA for school professionals and community providers.

Script to Families to Explain the Consent for Communication and Information Sharing Between School and Health Care Teams
This script is a tool school health staff and related health professionals can use to explain to families, in plain language, the purpose and goals of the information sharing consent form template.

Additional Resources

This policy statement provides recommendations for pediatricians and other pediatric health care professionals, clinics, health systems, payers, and electronic health record developers to optimize confidentiality practices and protections for adolescents and young adults across the spectrum of care.

When sharing information, providers must be mindful of the major federal privacy protections that govern the disclosure of information about students and patients: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.

The National Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Health and Well-Being is here to support adolescents, their families/caregivers, and the professionals who care for them by seeking opportunities to provide comprehensive care and support that meets adolescents’ needs where they are.

This webpage was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number 6 NU38PW000050-01-01 funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the American Academy of Pediatrics and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last Updated

07/01/2025

Source

American Academy of Pediatrics