The New Zealand AIDS Foundation, a registered charity, says it is against the law to require families to disclose a child’s status.

Parents of children with HIV are under no legal obligations to inform their child’s school – despite several schools having a policy insisting that they do.

About 50 children enrolled in schools have HIV, according to Shaun Robinson, executive director of the charity.

The Herald conducted an online search of schools after revelations a New Zealand father who had refused to seek treatment for his 9-year-old son, who has HIV, was being taken to court by a district health board.

The board is seeking guardianship of the boy so treatment can be administered. The boy’s father has not told him, or his school, that he has HIV.

A number of schools – primary, intermediate and colleges – state on their websites that head staff must be notified of any child with HIV.

One school said the principal, board of trustees and the school’s guidance counsellor should know if a child was carrying HIV. Other schools’ websites said they would not exclude or discriminate against children with HIV/Aids or any other blood-borne viruses.

But the decision was up to the child’s parents, said Shaun Robinson.

Source: NZ Herald on line 9/02/15.

Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11398630