Policy on Completing School Forms
Properly completing school forms requires an updated medical history, recent physical exam, up to date weight, and often involves dosing adjustments for emergency medications. These tasks cannot be properly performed without an office visit.
Therefore, school forms can only be completed for those patients who have had an in-office visit within the past 6 months. This is a medical liability and safety issue, and exceptions will not be made.
Remember, a failure to plan on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on our part. We simply do not have the bandwidth to cope with the deluge of forms which flood our office at the end of each summer, and it is neither medically advisable nor fair to expect our clinicians and staff to drop everything and complete last-minute forms for a child who has not been recently evaluated. School health forms are typically provided to families of returning students in the spring, before the end of the school year. Rising kindergarteners receive the forms in the early summer. Therefore, plan ahead and schedule your back to school appointment as soon as your forms are available in the spring or early summer. If you wait until late summer to call, you are unlikely to secure an appointment before the first day of school.
In order to facilitate the process, please pay attention to the following checklist:
Has your child had an appointment within the past 6 months? If no, you must schedule an appointment in order for forms to be completed. If yes, you may follow the front desk's instructions to send the forms to our office for completion.
Do you already have all the forms needed? We have food allergy action plans, asthma action plans, and urticaria action plans in the office. However, each school district has its own version of medication authorization forms and self-carry/self-administration forms. You must have hard copies of these forms in hand at the time of the appointment.
Have you filled out your portion of each form prior to your appointment? This includes your child's name, date of birth, grade level, parents' names and contact information, and parent signature. For medication authorization forms, a separate form may be required for each medication. Filling these items out during your appointment takes time away from pertinent medical discussions and teaching, so please complete them in advance. Our office will not accept blank forms for completion.
Did you receive the completed forms from our office? Our office will scan the completed school forms and give you the originals before you leave the office. The scanned copies of the forms will be available on our patient portal, should you require additional copies. For patients who do not require an appointment at the time of form completion, forms will be made available on the portal unless a self-addressed stamped envelope has been provided. There is a 2 week turn-around time for all school forms not completed in the context of an office visit. Charges for form completion may apply, which are not necessarily covered by insurance.
This policy has been created to ensure that all children have emergency action plans and school health plans that are accurate and up to date. We thank you in advance for your cooperation.