We have one child a rising Sophomore and another heading to college in a year. There have been several posts regarding legal documents and other paperwork that people more aware than I have recommended we have our child sign. However I can’t find these posts with my recent searches. What do you all recommend that we have our child sign so we can access his health info in the case of an emergency etc. Both our kids are 100% on board with us having access to any health, grades, financial info so that is of no concern. They already allow us to have the “find my phone” on their mobile devices. We do not take advantage of this and have only accessed it once after receiving many calls asking if our child was in an accident after reports of a vehicle like his that was in one. (it was not our son). We raise our kids to be autonomous and independent but they are still young and inexperienced and especially in the case of an emergency anyone of any age requires help. Thank you for any help in advance!!
I work for an attorney, and upon his advice we did a Health Care Directive and a Power of Attorney. They added a section in the POA that directly related to education, so I would have access to grades, health records, etc. from the college. My daughter had already given us permission to access those anyway. Here’s an article another attorney at my firm wrote that includes more detailed information: https://kkc-law.com/files/PDFs/College%20Preparation%20Tips.pdf
We had a health care proxy. However, when my daughter was actually in an accident, no one asked me for it. Once in the hospital they did want a proxy which was at the primary care MD’s office. This was only relevant because my daughter was not conscious for 10 days.
I have never asked for access to grades. I feel that is not necessary once they are in college. I did hope that my kids would tell me what was going on if there were problems, and visited enough to have conversations in which those might come up 
But not always! I did manage to convince my youngest to withdraw from a class she has missed 5 times out of 7! My others never had problems that I know of.
For kids with health issues, autonomy becomes really important as does achieving some sort of independence, in measured steps. I therefore stayed out of chronic illness care but occasionally my kid would allow me to write a note to the MD, which she could then choose whether or not to share with doctor. I never asked.
For healthy kids this may not be an issue. Paradoxically I think developing autonomy with health is more important for kids who are not healthy.
In addition to the above, the college will have a health waiver your child can sign once he/she matriculates. Both of ours signed this. We did not want access to their grades, but that is a separate waiver.
FERPA waiver from the college so you can pay the bill. (Seriously, our D needed to give us access to her account to pay the tuition). She also completed a health care POA form and signed the university health center’s waiver so they’d talk to us if she becomes ill. D also allowed us access to final semester grades (yet another form from her school).
Absent some unique circumstances, I don’t believe it’s necessary to have POA. If your kid is incapacitated in an emergency, the next of kin will make medical decisions, with or without the POA documents.
Thank you for all the information/help. We did do the FERPA last year and other than him verbally telling me his grades I do not need access to them other than reminding him his Merit scholarship requires him to keep a 3.0 or better. We get the bill of course but the health care waiver is always placed in an area that is kind of hidden although I am quick to see the $2400 plus extra each semester that was added to our bill so we make sure to make our son aware that doing the waiver is very very important $$. It appears we have our ducks in a row - again thank you very much.
Personally, I think POA might be overkill. Have the kids sign the FERPA waivers provided by the college, just in case something really dire happens (but full disclosure, I’m another parent who didn’t check grades…seems overly intrusive in regular circumstances). I think healthcare is trickier. As next of kin, you ought to be able to make decisions if the kids can’t, but I don’t want my kids to have any question that their healthcare needs are private. They should have no hesitation whatsoever to seek out care for anything, even things they find embarrassing and especially for things they think they’d be judged for.
Momof senior1 – the waiver allowing the university health care clinic to give you health information is not going to apply to any other doctor, clinic or hospital that is not the campus clinic. If your child ends up hospitalized or needs treatment that is not at the campus clinic, you will have no say in treatment or access to records (and if your child is incapacitated that could be a problem; don’t assume that because you’re next of kin, doctors will automatically or easily consult with you).
Ordinarylives – I do get the privacy concern you have re: health care and wanting your kids to seek care without any worries about being judged but…a healthcare directive really is there for the most dire circumstances. It won’t need to come into play unless it’s a situation where your college student is truly in a bad way.
I Spent today talking to a lawyer to set both legal /financial and medical POAs/directives up for college-bound daughter. The attorney said the idea is to have them and then hope you never need them, but if you do need them, it’s going to be in a circumstance that is stressful, rushed and difficult, and it’s better to have these documents already at hand than to have to jump through hoops like getting a court to grant you guardianship over your own child who is incapacitated.
In emergencies, hospitals are looking for help making the decisions, not trying to exclude parents from decisions. It’s the non-emergency situations when they won’t discuss treatment, billing, or the weather with you. POAs don’t help then.
My friend’s brother was taken to a hospital unconscious. When she located him (2 days later) the hospital was thrilled to have a family member to make some decisions. The hospital had been trying to find someone. They didn’t question that she was next of kin.
We also had our daughter complete a DPOHC but in terms of the university health center, they had their own form.
I also agree with @twoinanddone. My brother was just in the ER with our mom. I’m the DPOHC but they didn’t think twice about him signing paperwork and making the decisions.
Question: For those of you whose children signed legal documents, were they already 18? If they weren’t yet, are they enforceable?
My understanding is that they have to be 18 to be able to sign.
I would make sure your child allows you access to their healthcare and grades. You don’t ever have to look at it during normal circumstances, but if an emergency pops up you may have zero way to help them if they need you if you don’t put that in place from the beginning. The school may only contact you if your kid does something illegal, if they have a medical emergency they are treated like an adult if they are over 18 and you won’t necesssarily be contacted. Being the emergency contact on their forms does NOTHING.