Pre-employment and minors

Earl

Looking for suggestions. We regularly employ a small to fair amount of 15-17 year olds. It is a real challenge to do the pre-employment drug screen with them. Their parents have to be present to sign the release for the drug screen and physical and then it has to be scheduled obviously when they are not in school. How would you all handle the pre-emp drug screen aspect of this?

Beverlee

I believe there are some kits on the market for in house testing- one of my friends uses one to random check her son! Our ES Dept has brought this up- but our policy demands a split speciman for randoms.

Many clinics and urgent treatment places offer Saturday hours- this may help with your scheduling difficulties.

Dasher

It is tempting to want to make the process more convenient, however, I would always use a certified lab for the drug testing, especially of minors. The suggestion of using a clinic with early/late hours and weekend availability is a good one. The self testers may be okay when you get negative results, but if someone tests positive you would not want it to be up for any questioning at all.

hrpagersd

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We have a Nursing Staff that follows a procedure to do the "home" kits and then if the test comes back positive, the applicant has 24 hours to go to a clinic in town and have a follow up test done. If the test comes back negative from the clinic, those results prevail and we pick up the cost of the test from the clinic and proceed with the hiring process.

If they go to the clinic and they still test positive, they are responsible for the cost of the test and we do not hire them.

This has happened a couple times where they test positive here and we do not hear from them after that, although I make it very clear that we will cover the test if they go to the clinic and it comes back negative.

***NOTE: testing is only done to comply with a "preferred" statement by a state agency and we do not employe anyone that falls under DOT.***

NeedCoffee

We use a urgent care facility that has after-hours availability as well as Saturdays. Check what's open in your area, and make sure the facilities perform the testing required by your insurance/policies/etc.

Earl

Thanks, I probably should shop around to see what other certified facilities can offer. I agree with Dasher - It definately should be cetified. One thing I did learn recently when talking to the people we have a contract with - I can have the parents sign a consent for treatment of a minor and send that over when the student goes for a test or re-test. This whole process gets even more challenging during situations like what just did happen. The drug screen came back "dilute" I'm pulling my hair out to get this kid back over to the clinic only to find out I could have had a release signed! The clinic could have been a little more informative before now. Oh well, that's another topic!