Citation

Bersoff DN. J. Sch. Psychol. 1975; 13(4): 359-376.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1975, Society for the Study of School Psychology, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0022-4405(75)90054-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Through a series of fact situations the author demonstrates that reliance by practicing school psychologists on codes of ethics may lead to legal liability. Five areas are chosen for particular attention: 1) Parents' right to access to records; 2) Informed consent and the right to privacy in research and assessment; 3) Confidentialty of client-clinician communication; 4) Parental refusal of proferred educational services; 5) Treatment of minors without parental consent. Current statutory and case law is reviewed to give practitioners some sense of how the legislature and judiciary view professionals' responsibility in these areas. The article concludes with a discussion of why codes of ethics fail to provide adequate support for pscyhologists in meeting problems encountered in their everyday functioning and suggests some remedial measures for improving the current codes governing school psychology.