Upon enrollment of a child in the program, parents grant permission for Appalachian students in Child Development or related fields to have access to the general information in a child’s file. Students are instructed to respect the confidentiality of information acquired. In some cases, particularly sensitive information about a child or family is kept in a “confidential” file, accessible only to professional staff. With the exception of cases of suspected child abuse or neglect, information about a child or family is not released to other agencies or individuals without the written consent from the parent(s), unless required by law to do so.
Also, families grant permission for use of video and audio taping, photography, and other evaluation tools necessary to enhance the program. Students use these materials to reflect on experiences in the lab. Teachers use these materials to revisit experiences with children, to plan curriculum, and to communicate with parents about activities and experiences in the program. University faculty use these materials for educational or professional presentations about the program and curriculum. The identity of individual children is always protected in such presentations.
One of the goals of a laboratory school is to promote research which may contribute to the knowledge base of child development professionals. In fact the documentation techniques described above might be viewed as a type of “action research” conducted by teachers and students. In the event of any proposed research project involving more specific participation of individual children, parents would be provided information about the project and asked to decide whether to give permission for a child to participate. Such proposals, also, would be reviewed in advance by the university’s Institutional Review Board.