Dear Parent

From my son's school:

Dear Parent:

Enclosed find Therapy Department Release of/Request for Information Form. The form needs to be completed and signed by you so that reports written by your child's therapist can be shared with your physician. Also, this form will enable the Therapy Department to send for a medical referral from your physician requesting therapy for the next school year.

Therapy services cannot be initiated until the completed form is received by our office. Please complete and sign the relase and return it in the envelope provided for your convenience. Your assistance is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Therapy Programs Coordinator

Enclosed with that letter was a release form, that is to give the school permission to "obtain medical referrals for therapy, records, reports and verbal information, regarding the therapy program of ..."

I showed it to my son's doctor's office, and they said it gives the school complete access to all of his medical records. They did NOT recommend that I sign it. Neither did his behavior psychologist. I was informed, by both doctors' offices (ped & psychologist), that the only thing the school needs is a script for evaluation and therapy, which his ped gave me.

So why is the school telling me that they won't provide services unless I sign it?

Why do they need full access to his medical records and information?

The school has already demonstrated to me that they will not hesitate to threaten me with expulsion if I do not give my son the medications they believe he needs. The school has also already demonstrated that they will not hesitate to threaten me with putting my son into a confined classroom unless he is medicated more heavily. They have also demonstrated that they will stoop to lying and manipulating to get the information they want regarding my son's medications, and that they will stoop to lying and manipulating to try to get his medications increased.

And now they want me to trust them with full disclosure of my son's medical records?