KTVZ reports:
The Oregon Senate on Monday unanimously approved a bill co-sponsored by Bend Republican Tim Knopp to protect the rights of university and college students regarding medical, counseling and mental health records.
Knopp joined Sen. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis) and Rep. Ann Lininger (D-Lake Oswego) as chief sponsors of Senate Bill (SB) 1558-A, which was passed by a unanimous vote of 28-0.
The policy states that health records, mental health records, and counseling records of students are not considered “student records” by colleges or universities.
Read more on KTVZ.
The key portion of the bill’s text, as Engrossed:
A public or private college or university health center, mental health center or counseling center that provides health care, mental health care or counseling services to students, or a health professional retained by a college or university to provide health care, mental health care or counseling services to students, may disclose records of health care, mental health care or counseling provided to a student to any other person within the college or university, affiliated with the college or university or acting on behalf of the college or university, only to the extent that a person unaffiliated with the college or university would be lawfully authorized to disclose the records when providing health care, mental health care or counseling services.
So they can’t declare these records are covered by HIPAA, but they can declare that they’re not covered by FERPA as “student records.”