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Confidentiality is a concern of a lot of students, parents, and DePaul University staff and faculty members. The laws governing confidentiality of the educational records of all students, and then in particular of students with disabilities are complex and occasionally difficult to decipher. This area will attempt to clarify what PLuS students should expect regarding confidentiality issues while they participate in PLuS.
PLuS is committed to keeping disability-related information in accordance with state and federal laws. Under these laws disclosure may be permissible on several occasions; however, it is not required, nor is it a duty.
PLuS respects each student's choices and decisions regarding disclosure of their disability.
Based on above two principles, PLuS' policies regarding confidentiality are as follows:
- All records, information, and participation status of students will be shared only with those individuals to whom the students disclose themselves, and for whom the students have provided PLuS with a signed release of information form. Disclosure is defined as to permit access to, or to release, transfer, or to communicate personally identifiable information contained in education records to any party, by any means, including oral, written or electronic means
- PLuS will honor all other legal requests in person, and in the student's presence only.
- The only exceptions to these policies are requests made by law enforcement officers, or by DePaul University staff or faculty when the student's academic status is in jeopardy (e.g. probation). These requests will be honored immediately, and the student will be informed of the nature of the request, and the information shared.
Notice of Disability
One very important aspect of the laws regarding students with disabilities in the post-secondary institution is that it is the students' responsibility to give notice of disability to initiate accommodations; this notice should be given to the appropriate offices of the institution which have been established to handle students' with disabilities records and requests. Until students identify themselves as students with a disability, they are not entitled to any accommodations. Even though there is no time limit as to when they can do that, requests should be made timely, to ensure timely delivery of the accommodations. At DePaul University students with disabilities may disclose and request accommodations from the Office for Students with Disabilities and from the PLuS Program