Can youth get HIV testing without parental consent or notification in New Jersey?
New Jersey law does not specifically address whether parental consent is needed for a person under the age of 18 to get an HIV test. N.J.S.A. 9:17A-4 assures that a person under age 18 can be tested for a sexually transmitted infection without parental consent if they have any reason to think they might be infected. Because of the ambiguity concerning the law s application to HIV, some health care providers will test for HIV without parental consent while others will not. A person under age 18 can always obtain HIV testing at a state-supported anonymous HIV counseling and testing site located across the state. Anonymous testing means that the test site has only a code number to identify the test sample, and the person tested must return with the code in order to learn their test result. Sites that provide confidential HIV counseling and testing vary in their policies for testing youth. These sites record the name and contact information of the person being tested, so that they can foll
