Nebraska Administrative Code › Topic - HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SYSTEM › Title 480 - HOME AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES › Chapter 1 - EARLY INTERVENTION SERVICES COORDINATION › Section 480-1-013 - SERVICES COORDINATION RECORDS

Current through June 17, 2024
Service coordination contracting agencies are responsible for
	 maintaining early intervention records as described in this section.
013.01
CONFIDENTIALITY.
Confidentiality must be maintained
  consistent with the following requirements:
(A) Written parent or guardian consent must
  be obtained before personally identifiable information is disclosed, verbally
  or in writing, to anyone other than service coordination staff;
(B) Each services coordination agency must
  protect the confidentiality of personally identifiable information at all
  stages including content of meetings, staff discussions, information
  collection, record storage, disclosure, and destruction. All information
  contained in the files or available to staff members is considered
  confidential;
(C) In order to
  protect information about persons requesting or receiving services, the
  services coordination agency must store and process information in secured
  areas so that such information can be accessed only by authorized personnel.
  Adequate supervision of the secured areas must be provided to prevent
  unauthorized removal or loss of information;
(D) One official at each services
  coordination agency must assume responsibility for insuring the confidentiality
  of any personally identifiable information. This official must maintain, for
  public inspection, a current listing of the names and positions of those
  employees within the agency who may have access to personally identifiable
  information;
(E) Each services
  coordination agency must keep a record of persons obtaining access to the early
  intervention records collected, maintained, or used, including the name of the
  person, the date access was given, and the purpose for which the person is
  authorized to use the records. This record keeping requirement does not apply
  to access by parents or authorized staff members of the agency;
(F) When a release is signed so that
  confidential records can be disclosed, the release must, in the parent's native
  language or other mode of communication:
(i)
  Fully inform parents of their rights to refuse to sign and the consequences of
  failure to sign;
(ii) List agencies
  and individuals who may receive information and specify the type of information
  for each and for what purpose;
(iii) Allow parents to limit both the
  information released and to whom it may be released;
(iv) Inform parents that they may revoke
  consent at any time; and
(v)
  Provide a time limit on consent;
(G) Parents must be given the opportunity to
  inspect and review records relating to screening, evaluations and assessments,
  eligibility determinations, development and implementation of Individualized
  Family Services Plans (IFSPs), provision of early intervention services,
  individual complaints dealing with the child, and any other aspect of the Early
  Intervention Program involving records about the child and the child's family
  with the exception of child protective services and foster care records.
  Parents have the right to have the information in records explained and
  interpreted by a professional staff person and in their primary mode of
  communication. Agencies must comply with a parent's request to inspect and
  review records without unnecessary delay and before any Individualized Family
  Service Plan (IFSP) meeting or hearing and in no case more than 10 days after
  the request has been made;
(H)
  Parents must be provided a list of the types and locations of early
  intervention services coordination records collected, maintained, or used by
  the services coordination agency, upon parental request;
(I) As a child transitions out of the Early
  Intervention Program, records having to do with family goals and not pertinent
  to the child's education and related services do not follow the child and do
  not become part of the educational record of the child. Rather, they are kept
  in confidential storage in the Early Intervention Program and destroyed after
  six years with other records or destroyed at the request of the
  parents;
(J) Parents have the right
  to copies of their child's records but there may be a reasonable copying charge
  for this;
(K) Parents have the
  right to have someone they choose inspect and review the records;
(L) Parents have the right to ask that early
  intervention records be changed if they believe that information in the records
  is inaccurate or misleading or violates the privacy or other rights of their
  child or family. The right to request a change in the records includes:
(i) The right to be informed if the agency
  refuses to change the information as requested;
(ii) The right to a hearing on the refusal to
  change the record; and
(iii) The
  right to include an explanation of the family's statement of disagreement if
  the agency refuses to change the record. This statement must be kept with the
  portion of the record the family disagrees with and included with any request
  to see the record; and
(M) Parents have the right to be informed
  when personally identifiable information is no longer needed to provide early
  intervention services to their child or family. They then have the right to ask
  that information in the early intervention record be destroyed; however, a
  permanent record of a child's name, date of birth, parent contact information
  (including address and phone number), names of services coordinator(s) and
  early intervention service provider(s), and exit data, including year and age
  upon exit and any programs entered into upon exiting, may be maintained without
  time limitation.