Confidentiality

ALL MINOR CONSENT CASES ARE CONFIDENTIAL, PARENTS OR GUARDIANS MUST NOT BE CONTACTED.

The EW must:

NOT contact the child's parent or guardian regarding the minor's application or inform the parent or guardian that there has been an application submitted for Minor Consent services.
Advise the child that the parent or guardian will NOT be contacted.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT MAIL ANYTHING TO THE ADDRESS PROVIDED FOR MINOR CONSENT APPLICANTS.

Not apply parental responsibility rules (tax dependency requirements).
Maintain confidentiality on Minor Consent cases. However, the child is not required to do so. The parent’s or guardian’s knowledge of the Minor Consent application is not a reason to deny the application.

Note: The Minor Consent application or eligibility determination processes are not affected if the child chooses to inform parents, guardians or anyone else of his/her application for Minor Consent.

Although the County Social Services Agency does not contact parents or guardians directly, State law allows health care professionals to contact parents or guardians of a minor receiving outpatient mental health treatment or counseling, or services for drug or alcohol related problems to encourage them to participate in the treatment. However, the parents or guardians may not be contacted if the health care professionals treating the minor believe it would not be helpful for the minor to have parents or guardians involved.

Parents or guardians are required to pay for any services they receive while participating in the minor’s treatment.

Confidentiality for Applications Received by Mail, Email, Fax, and Any Other Means

If an application for Minor Consent is receive by mail, email, fax, or any other means other than in person or telephone, the Eligibility Worker must express extreme caution when pursuing eligibility for the child. If there is a phone number available on the application (received by mail, email, fax, etc.) the EW may call that number and, without identifying him/herself, ask for the child by first name only. If the person that answers the phone indicates that the child is unavailable the EW must end the call without sharing any information or indicating the reason for the call.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality for Applications Received by Mail, Email, Fax, and Any Other Means

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