Professional Liability insurance shall be written with limits no less than $1,000,000 per claim and $1,000,000 policy aggregate limit, as applicable.
Professional Dues The school district will pay the annual dues for the Superintendent’s membership in the following organizations: Nebraska Council of School Administrators (NCSA), The School Superintendents Association (AASA), and any other membership dues requested by the Superintendent and approved by the Board.
Professional Conferences Professional conferences are those conferences sponsored by educational organizations, institutions of higher learning, and government and industry concerning teaching, learning and educational research. When a full-time or part-time faculty member’s attendance at a professional conference conflicts with his/her regular assignment, the faculty member must submit a request for attendance to the appropriate ▇▇▇▇, Director, or Supervisor. If granted, the attendance at the conference will be considered leave with pay, and a follow-up report of the conference shall be submitted to the appropriate Supervisor.
PROFESSIONAL RECORDS You should be aware that, according to the rules of HIPAA, I keep Protected Health Information about you in two sets of professional records. One set constitutes your Clinical Record. It includes information about your reasons for seeking therapy, a description of the ways in which your problem impacts on your life, your diagnosis, the goals that we set for treatment, your progress towards those goals, your medical and social history, your treatment history, any past treatment records that I receive from other providers, reports of any professional consultations, your billing records, and any reports that have been sent to anyone, including reports to your insurance carrier. In addition, I also keep a set of Psychotherapy Notes. These Notes are for my own use and are designed to assist me in providing you with the best treatment, While the content of Psychotherapy Notes vary from client to client, they can include notes regarding the contents of our conversations, my analysis of those conversations, and how they impact on your therapy. They also can contain particularly sensitive information that you may reveal to me that is not required to be included in your Clinical Record. These Psychotherapy Notes are kept separate from your Clinical Record. While insurance companies can request and receive a copy of your Clinical Record, they cannot receive a copy of your Psychotherapy Notes without your signed, written Authorization. Insurance companies cannot require your Authorization as a condition of coverage nor penalize you in any way for your refusal. You may examine and/or receive a copy of both sets of records, if you request it in writing. Because these are professional records, they can be misinterpreted and/or upsetting to untrained readers. For this reason, I recommend that you initially review them in my presence, or have them forwarded to another mental health professional so you can discuss the contents. In most circumstances, I am allowed to charge a fee for copying records. The exceptions to this policy are contained in the Privacy Notice form. HIPAA provides you with several new or expanded rights with regard to your Clinical Record and disclosures of protected health information. These rights include requesting that I amend your record; requesting restrictions on what information from your Clinical Record is disclosed to others; requesting an accounting of most disclosures of Protected Health Information that you have neither consented to nor authorized; determining the location to which protected information disclosures are sent; having any complaints you make about my policies and procedures recorded in your records; and the right to a paper copy of this Agreement, the Privacy Notice form, and my privacy policies and procedures. I am happy to discuss any of these rights and/or issues with you. Patients under 18 years of age who are not emancipated and their parents should be aware that the law may allow parents to examine their child’s treatment records. Because privacy in psychotherapy is often crucial to successful progress, particularly with teenagers, it is sometimes my policy to request an agreement from parents that they consent to give up their access to their child’s records. If they agree, during treatment, I will typically provide them only with general information about the progress of the child’s treatment, and his/her attendance at scheduled sessions. I also may provide parents with a summary of their child’s treatment when it is complete. Most other communication will require the child’s Authorization, unless I feel that the child is in danger or is a danger to someone else, in which case, I will notify the parents of my concern. Before giving parents information, I will discuss the matter with the child, if possible, and do my best to handle any objections he/she may have.
PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR A. The Association recognizes that abuses of sick leave or other leaves, chronic tardiness or absence, willful deficiencies in professional performance, or other violations of discipline by a teacher reflect adversely upon the teaching profession and create undesirable conditions in the school building. The Board, in recognition of the concept of progressive correction, shall notify the teacher of alleged delinquencies, indicate expected correction, and indicate a reasonable period for correction. Alleged breaches of discipline shall be promptly reported to the offending teacher. The Association will use its best efforts to correct breaches of professional behavior by any teacher.
B. A teacher shall at all times be entitled to have present a representative of the Association when he is being reprimanded, warned or disciplined for any infractions of discipline or delinquency in professional performance. When a request for such representation is made, no action shall be taken with respect to the teacher until such representative of the Association is present.
C. No teacher shall be disciplined, reprimanded, reduced in rank or compensation or deprived of any professional advantage without just cause. Any such discipline, reprimand or reduction in rank, compensation or advantage, including adverse evaluation of teacher performance asserted by the Board or any agent or representative thereof shall be subject to the professional grievance procedure hereinafter set forth.
D. A probationary teacher who, through the evaluation process, is not meeting district standards but is being retained shall be subject to a correction committee. The correction committee shall be composed of the affected teacher’s mentor teacher, if applicable, the evaluating administrator, and, if he/she desires, a Meridian EA representative of the affected teacher’s choice. The committee shall determine the criteria the probationary teacher needs to attain in order to meet the district standards and inform him/her of the committee’s expectations. If, after further evaluation, the teacher has not made sufficient progress, the committee will refer the entire matter to the superintendent for consideration and disposition. He/she may choose to continue the correction process, subject to further evaluation, or dismiss the teacher from employment. This supercedes Article XIV, Section C.