In canvassing the nation for ways to prevent another tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech, a federal panel found widespread confusion about the sharing of information on mentally troubled students and the threats they might pose.
A report by the panel, created by President Bush in the days after a shooting rampage at Tech, was released Wednesday.
In discussions with education, mental health and law enforcement officials, the panel heard different interpretations of privacy laws as they relate to students whose mental problems pose a potential threat.
As a result, the panel concluded, what it called "information silos" are likely to make agencies wary of sharing information, even when the law allows it.
The 22-page report contains more general language about themes than it does specific findings of fact.
There is no explanation about how confusion about information sharing might have contributed to the events of April 16 at Tech, where a mentally troubled student apparently slipped through the cracks of the state's mental health and judicial systems before opening fire on campus.
No one on the panel -- headed by the secretaries of the Departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services -- spoke to anyone at Tech. Nor was Virginia one of the 12 states the group visited in conducting its work.
Much of the confusion discussed during the panel's sessions dealt with federal laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a statute more commonly known as HIPAA that safeguards the privacy of health data, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
"It's interesting to note that other universities appear to have grappled with this and with interpretations of FERPA and HIPAA," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.
But as for the details of how the university dealt with student Seung-Hui Cho and his troubled behavior in the months leading up to the shooting, "we are not yet in a position to offer evaluation or lessons learned," Hincker said.
The panel offered seven recommendations on how to reduce the confusion it found. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services should develop additional guidance on how HIPAA and FERPA should be interpreted, the panel suggested, and states should review their laws to see if changes are necessary "to achieve the appropriate balance of privacy and security."
Also included in the panel's report were four other findings that addressed topics already discussed in other settings in the days since April 16:
n State laws do not uniformly ensure that information about people prohibited from owning firearms as a result of mental illness is submitted to a federal database for background checks. A bill that encourages states to submit the information passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
n Better communication is needed to break down tacit "codes of silence" in school cultures about warning signs that often precede incidents of violence.
n More resources are needed to address "an increasing number of students with serious mental health issues and the lack of adequate services to support them."
n Schools need to do a better job of developing and implementing their emergency management plans, including having a way to communicate with students, staff and parents when a crisis happens.
It was not clear Wednesday what happens now that the report has been completed. A spokeswoman with the Department of Health and Human Services, the lead federal agency in the review, did not respond to written questions.
Staff writer Greg Esposito contributed to this report.
