Parents’ Rights and Teen Privacy
TeenScreen requires parent consent and teen assent for participation in the program. All local TeenScreen programs must obtain parent permission before offering screening to youth. The national program’s consent policy requires all school-based TeenScreen programs to obtain active, written parent consent for screening. Non school-based programs are strongly advised to use active consent as well, and the majority of these sites use this consent method. In addition to obtaining parent consent, youth must also provide written assent to participate in the TeenScreen Program. At any time during the screening, youth may refuse to answer any question.
The TeenScreen Program’s success is being used by some to advance their own anti-mental health agendas. For example, some organizations that have strong feelings against mental health programs persist in claiming that the program is funded by drug companies or is trying to encourage anti-depressant use. Both of these assertions are untrue.
The TeenScreen Program has never received support or funding from pharmaceutical companies for screening.
Although TeenScreen screens for the symptoms that are associated with different mental health disorders, the program does not make any diagnoses and does not involve treatment.
TeenScreen does not screen for schizophrenia or psychosis, “externalizing disorders,” like ADHD, or disorders that require behavioral observation for detection, like autism.
http://www.teenscreen.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=98&Itemid=206#works