Maintaining Confidentiality in Child Care Settings
What is confidential information?
Confidential information is personal details from our lives which we may not want to share with others. It can include our address, phone number, birth date, employment history or other personal information. It may also include information about our past or present health and development. Individuals have the right to keep information of this type private.
Child care programs routinely handle confidential information about enrolled children, families and staff. When managing sensitive information, it is important for child care directors, administrators and staff to be aware of their ethical and legal responsibility to protect the privacy of individuals and families.
Legal requirements
Regulations for Child Care require that providers ensure the confidentiality of all records pertaining to enrolled children. Files containing confidential information should be accessible only to childminders who must know the information in order to care for the children. Each child’s records must also be made available to that individual child’s parent/guardian. Childminders require that they must inform the parents/guardians of enrolled children that their information will be kept confidential. Childminders must explain to enrolled families that their records will be shared only as described above, unless the family gives the program written consent to disclose specific information to others.
Confidential contents of records in child care settings
Childminders must keep individual files for each enrolled child, including but not limited to the following:
• enrollment forms
• family’s health insurance information
• health screenings and records, including immunization records
• emergency contact information
• contact information for those authorized to pick up child...