Protecting Student Privacy
Testing begins and ends with privacy. Schools that conduct random student drug testing typically maintain privacy by restricting how many people have access to vital information, such as the identity and medical history of the student providing the sample, and the test results. However, privacy can be maintained in very different ways. The following describes two approaches to protecting student privacy during the random drug testing process.
One approach
At Hackettstown High School in Hackettstown, New Jersey, students selected for drug testing in the school’s four-year-old testing program are called into the guidance office. A student may be summoned to the office for a variety of reasons, so little attention is paid to the half-dozen students who are called in each week for testing. When the student arrives, the guidance counselor escorts him or her to the school nurse’s office. The student then provides a urine sample, which is tested immediately with a chemical test kit for the presence of prohibited substances.
If the on-site test is negative, the sample is destroyed. The only people aware of the test and the result are the student, the guidance counselor, and the school nurse.
If a sample tests positive, it is sent to a laboratory for a confirming test. A chain-of-custody form accompanies the sample. At this point, the student’s name is not disclosed, and the laboratory knows the student only by a code number. If the test is confirmed positive, the results are sent to a medical review officer, who learns the student’s identity through the guidance counselor.
Next, the medical review officer contacts the student’s family to determine whether the student might be taking prescription medication under a physician’s direction, possibly resulting in a nonnegative test. If this turns out to be the case, the medical review officer notifies the school’s guidance counselor that the testing result is negative. The officer does not explain why the result was ruled negative, nor does he or she give out any information about which prescription drug may have been involved.
Another approach
In North Carolina’s Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School District, school personnel play no role in the district’s random student drug testing program, which began in 1998. Rather, testing is conducted by a service agency hired by the district’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools office. The contracting agency is a nonprofit organization that provides treatment and education services related to mental health and substance abuse.
With this approach, technicians from the service agency arrive at the school without providing prior notice to the school. They randomly select students who are eligible for testing (students involved in athletics or other extracurricular activities, or who are voluntarily enrolled in the program). The agency collects the urine samples, establishes a chain-of-custody sequence, performs initial and confirmatory testing, and provides a medical review of results.
“The school knows the agency is there testing when the agency personnel show up, but the school is not involved in the process or know who is being tested,” explained Mike Nesser, Program Specialist with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Safe and Drug-Free School Office. “It takes a great deal of responsibility from school employees.”
Samples are analyzed for seven compounds, and a separate steroid test may be administered to student athletes. Students are given the option of saliva testing if they cannot provide a urine sample, although in those cases the testing must be done off-site at the agency’s facilities.
The service agency is responsible for contacting parents if more medical information is required or if any of the samples test positive. The agency also conducts counseling for students to assist them in recovery and in staying safe and drug free. At no time are the results, negative or positive, provided to school personnel. This way, said Nesser, school officials can spend more time educating students about the risks of alcohol and drug use.
Two school districts, two very different ways of ensuring privacy in drug testing. In both cases, access to the drug-testing information is limited to the student, his or her parents, and very few others. This policy allows the schools to ensure accurate, reliable results without jeopardizing students’ privacy.