The Boise School District is asking parents and guardians for permission to supply basic first aid to their children — including Band-Aids and Tylenol — after a new law mandated parental consent for non-life threatening medical services. 

On Wednesday, Boise administrators sent a memo to parents asking that they fill out a consent form. The district now needs permission “before non-life threatening medical services can be provided to minors,” per Senate Bill 1329, the message said. 

The 2024 Legislature adopted the bill, also known as the Parents’ Rights in Medical Decision-making Act. It gives a parent the right to sue a “health care provider” who furnishes a “health care service” to a minor without parental consent. Idaho Education News reported last month that the law applies to schools, which administer health screenings and medications, among other medical services.

The Boise district has interpreted the statute to mean everything as menial as giving a student a Band-Aid. The district offered the following list as examples of medical service that requires parental consent: 

• Band-Aids.
• Routine first aid.
• Over-the-counter headache medications.
• Mental health check-ins.

Boise spokesman Dan Hollar pointed EdNews to the section of the law that defines “health care service” as including the “diagnosis, screening, examination, prevention, treatment, cure, care or relief of any physical or mental health condition, illness, injury, defect or disease.”

And Boise may not be the only district covering all its bases. The Idaho School Boards Association is advising districts that “general first aid” qualifies as a medical service under the law.

“While it may not be the legislative intent of the sponsors to require explicit permission to provide a Band-Aid, ISBA guidance is that school districts and charter schools do need to receive permission from parents or guardians to administer general first aid to their student,” said ISBA executive director Misty Swanson.

Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, the bill’s sponsor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lawmakers passed the legislation along party lines with unanimous Republican support, and GOP Gov. Brad Little signed it into law. 

SB 1329’s statement of purpose says it’s meant to ensure that “children, who often lack maturity and make choices without considering either immediate or long-term consequences, are protected by the informed decision-making of their parents.”

Boise’s memo noted that parental consent is not necessary when medical care is necessary to prevent “death or imminent, irreparable physical injury” or if a nurse can’t reach the parent or guardian and the child’s “life or health would be seriously endangered by further delay.”

What if a student scrapes their knee and needs a Band-Aid, but their parents didn’t consent to it? Hollar relayed instructions that Boise administrators delivered to staff: 

“​​If a child requires non-life threatening medical care, or mental health treatment, and no parent is available to provide consent promptly, please use your best judgment and provide the care as needed.”

Boise asks for permission to use student nicknames

Medical service isn’t the only matter that requires parental consent. Boise’s Wednesday memo asked for permission to use student nicknames. 

House Bill 538, also passed by Statehouse Republicans this year, bars school employees from addressing a student by a name other than their legal name or a derivative of their legal name, without written permission from a parent or guardian. 

Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, who sponsored HB 538, previously told EdNews that the legislation was designed to protect the First Amendment rights of teachers who refuse to use transgender students’ preferred names and pronouns. Students are “changing their name every day,” and they “demand” that teachers recognize their gender, he said.

“It’s absolute chaos,” Hill said. “Nobody has the right to demand any language of any kind.” 

The statute says that public school employees “shall not … knowingly and intentionally address an unemancipated minor student by a name other than the student’s legal name or a derivative thereof, or by a preferred personal title or pronoun that is inconsistent with the student’s sex, without the written permission of the student’s parent or guardian.” 

To comply with the law, the Boise district erased all nicknames from its student management system, the memo said. And parents must provide consent for school employees to use a name that isn’t derivative of their legal name. A derivative, for example, could be “Sam” for “Samantha” or “Alex” for “Alexander,” which wouldn’t require consent. 

“We understand that this may create some confusion and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure your student’s experience at school is welcoming and respectful,” the memo said.