HB 0853 / SB 0259

HB0853 clarifies and consolidates parental access and consent rights regarding the healthcare of unemancipated minors. It expressly authorizes a child’s parent, legal guardian, or custodian to access and review the child’s medical and mental-health records — including records generated from treatments that a minor received without parental consent — “to the extent allowable by federal law.” The bill also creates a limited safety valve: if a treating professional is required to report abuse and reasonably believes that releasing records would endanger the child, parental access may be denied.

On consent, HB0853 prohibits a healthcare provider from performing medical treatment on an unemancipated minor unless the provider first obtains informed consent from a parent or guardian or secures a court order; it does, however, authorize a licensed physician to provide emergency medical treatment without prior parental consent under certain circumstances. In the school setting, the bill explicitly allows local education agency employees to provide basic first-aid supplies (bandages, gauze, ice packs) without first obtaining parental consent. From a conservative perspective, the bill restores and strengthens parental primacy over children’s medical decisions and increases transparency between families and treating professionals, while preserving narrowly drawn exceptions for emergencies and child-safety concerns.