Ethics Question

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Childdoconeday

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I have been offered a great position at a private school (specifically, the high school portion of the school)! One of the perks of the job is that I would be able to send my children to this prestigious school for free. It should be noted that with this position I will be primarily working with the high schoolers. With that in mind, would I be able to send my kindergartener to the school? I don't think it would be a dual relationship with my clients because I won't be interacting with my son's friends, as they are in the lower school.

Please advise. Thank you!

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Most state associations and the apa trust have ethics/legal questions help lines for just such situations. I know I like the idea of my malpractice carrier telling me everything is A-OK documented in case something blows up later.
 
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The ethics code doesn’t forbid dual relationships. Dual relationships are impossible to completely avoid—some (including me) would argue that most any therapy relationship is automatically dual because you also have a financial agreement with the client. It forbids problematic dual relationships. Otherwise a psychologist in a small town would have to lock themselves in their own house whenever they weren’t working.
“What are the foreseeable ways seeing people who know or might know my kid might impact anything?” Is a better question to think about.
 
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Your child would be in kindergarten, but do you plan to remain at this school until your child is done with high school there? I'd be less worried about dual relationships and more concerned with the students not having a relationship with me (i.e., not coming in when they have problems), because they were concerned that their friend's/classmate's parent was the psychologist there.
 
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