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From: Robert Swotinsky MD
Date: 21 Oct 2004
Time: 16:44:08 -0700
Remote Name: 68.166.235.185
Parents may have certain rights with regard to access to their kids' school or workplace drug test results. Those rights would depend on state law. Also, a kid can sign a release form that would authorize his parent(s) to get the result. If you're not aware of any specific law that directs you to give the result to the parent, and if the kid has not completed a release authorizing such disclosure, then don't disclose. I draw analogies with kids who may get pregnancy tests without their parents' knowledge; the pediatricians don't (at least in Massachusetts) notify the parents that their kids were tested, or of the test results. Like pregnancy tests, workplace drug tests are not intrinsically high risk. A mature minor, typically at least age 15, can consent to medical tests that are not high risk. Older adolescents are competent to consent to workplace or school drug or alcohol testing. It doesn't matter that the parent(s) completed an authorization for the test. What does matter is that the kid not be tested without his/her agreement (which presumably is the case since the test took place), and that the result not be disclosed to parents or other third parties without the kid's permission or unless under court order.