[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 59 (Tuesday, April 15, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3029-S3030]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WEBB (for himself and Mr. Warner):
  S. 2859. A bill to amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy 
Act of 1974 to clarify limits on disclosure of student health records, 
and for other

[[Page S3030]]

purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the 
bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 2859

         Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
     of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

         This Act may be cited as the ``Family Educational Rights 
     and Privacy Act Amendments of 2008''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

         Congress finds the following:
         (1) Federal authorities charged with examining the tragic 
     shootings at Virginia Tech in April 2007 found that confusion 
     and overly-restrictive interpretations of Federal privacy 
     laws, State medical confidentiality laws, and regulations 
     unnecessarily impede the effective transfer of information 
     that could prove useful in averting tragedies. Some school 
     administrators are unaware of exceptions to Federal privacy 
     laws that could allow relevant information about a student's 
     mental health to be appropriately shared.
         (2) The purpose of this Act is to eliminate ambiguity in 
     Federal education privacy law to ensure that the Family 
     Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is not 
     interpreted as prohibiting information sharing between on-
     campus and off-campus health care providers when both are 
     involved in treating a student. Such ``consults'' are 
     generally permitted by State medical confidentiality law, and 
     FERPA should not be interpreted as posing an additional 
     obstacle. The Virginia Tech Review Panel recommended that 
     changes to ``FERPA should explicitly explain how it applies 
     to medical records held for treatment purposes''. The panel 
     reported that misinterpretation of how student treatment 
     records are handled under FERPA as the main source of 
     confusion. FERPA protects the privacy of both student 
     education records and student treatment records from being 
     disclosed generally.
         (3) The Virginia Tech Review Panel recommended that 
     Federal privacy laws should be amended to include ``safe 
     harbor'' provisions that would insulate a person or 
     organization from the loss of Federal education funding for 
     making a disclosure with a good faith belief that the 
     disclosure was necessary to protect the health or safety of a 
     student or member of the public at large. The Commission 
     further recommended that the Federal Educational Rights and 
     Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) be amended to clarify the ability 
     of educational institutions to disclose information in 
     emergency situations and to facilitate treatment of students 
     at off-campus facilities.
         (4) Mental disorders frequently begin during youth. 
     Research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health 
     found that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin 
     by age 14; three quarters have begun by age 24.
         (5) In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and 
     Prevention reported 4,316 suicides among young adults aged 
     15-24, making it the third leading cause of death in this age 
     group. There were an additional 5,074 suicides among those 
     aged 25-34, making it the second leading cause of death in 
     this age group.
         (6) Depression, mental illness, and suicide are problems 
     on college campuses. In 2006, 44 percent of college students 
     reported feeling so depressed it was difficult to function 
     and 9 percent seriously considered suicide, according to a 
     2006 national survey conducted by the American College Health 
     Association.
         (7) While most people in the United States with a mental 
     disorder eventually seek treatment, a National Institute of 
     Mental Health study found pervasive and lengthy delays in 
     getting treatment, with the median delay across disorders 
     being nearly a decade. Over a 12-month period, 60 percent of 
     those with a mental disorder got no treatment at all.
         (8) A 2006 survey sponsored by the American College 
     Counseling Association found that 9 percent of enrolled 
     students sought counseling last year and 92 percent of 
     counseling center directors reported an increase in the 
     number of students with severe psychological disorders.
         (9) Recent events, including the campus shootings at the 
     Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois universities, have 
     further highlighted the deadly problems of mental illness and 
     violence in American schools. The Northern Illinois shooting 
     resulted in 6 deaths while the Virginia Tech killings left 32 
     people dead, making it the most lethal school shooting in 
     United States history.

     SEC. 3. STUDENT HEALTH RECORDS.

         The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 
     U.S.C. 1232g) is amended by adding at the end the following:
         ``(k) Consultation With Off Campus Medical 
     Professionals.--Nothing in this section shall prohibit a 
     physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or other recognized 
     healthcare professional or paraprofessional acting in the 
     individual's professional or paraprofessional capacity, or 
     assisting in that capacity, from consulting with or 
     disclosing records described in subsection (a)(4)(B)(iv) with 
     respect to a student, to a physician, psychiatrist, 
     psychologist, or other recognized healthcare professional or 
     paraprofessional acting in the individual's professional or 
     paraprofessional capacity, or assisting in that capacity, 
     outside the educational agency or institution in connection 
     with the provision of treatment to the student.''.

     SEC. 4. SAFE HARBOR PROVISION.

         The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 
     U.S.C. 1232g) is amended in subsection (f) by adding at the 
     end the following: ``The release by an educational agency or 
     institution of education records or personally identifiable 
     information contained in such records in the good faith 
     belief that such release is necessary to protect against a 
     potential threat to the health or safety of the student or 
     other persons, shall not be deemed a failure to comply with 
     this section regardless of whether it is subsequently 
     determined that the specified conditions for such release did 
     not exist.''.

     SEC. 5. EMERGENCY EXCEPTION AMENDMENT.

         The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 
     U.S.C. 1232g) is amended in subsection (b)(1)(I) by striking 
     ``is necessary'' and all that follows and inserting ``is 
     necessary, according to the good faith belief of the 
     educational agency or institution or persons to whom such 
     disclosure is made, to protect against a potential threat to 
     the health or safety of the student or other persons; and''.
                                 ______