01School and sports
How to survive the Iowa school forms season
Immunization certificate, dental screening, vision screening and the sports physical all have different deadlines and different signatures. Here is the order to do them in.
Every August the front desk answers the same call about forty times a day. The forms are not hard, but there are four separate ones, they have different rules, and nobody gives parents a single list. So here is the list.
Do this in May or June, not August
The single best thing you can do is book the annual well-child visit before school lets out. In May we can usually see you within a week. In the third week of August we cannot, and neither can anyone else in Polk County.
One well-child visit can produce every form your child needs for the year, because we already have the growth, blood pressure, vision, hearing and immunization record in front of us.
The four forms
- Iowa Certificate of Immunization. Required for every child entering an Iowa school or licensed childcare. We print it from the state registry while you wait.
- Dental screening certificate. Required at kindergarten entry and again at ninth grade, with a screening window defined by grade. A dentist, hygienist or a qualified screener can complete it.
- Vision screening. Required for kindergarten and third grade entry. We do this at the visit.
- Pre-participation physical evaluation. The IHSAA and IGHSAU form for student athletes, which must be completed before the first practice of the school year.
Upload the blank form first
This is the thing that speeds everything up. Send the blank form through the patient portal before the appointment. Forms that are in our hands at the visit go back the same day. Forms handed over at the front desk on the way out take two business days, because they have to be scanned, matched to a chart and routed to a clinician who is now seeing someone else.
Medication at school
If your child takes anything at school, including an inhaler or an epinephrine auto-injector, the school needs a signed authorization every single school year, and a new one whenever the dose changes. Decide before the visit whether your child will self-carry, because that needs its own signature and, honestly, its own conversation about whether your child is ready.
August is also the right month to check the expiry date on every epinephrine auto-injector in your house, your car and your child's bag.
What we cannot sign
We will not sign a clearance form for a child we have not examined, and we will not backdate a physical. If your athlete's form needs a date inside a window that has closed, book the visit and we will work out what is actually possible.
If this is a medical emergency, or your child is struggling to breathe, unresponsive, having a seizure, or badly injured, call 911 now. Call 911.
General information, not medical advice. It is not tailored to your child and it does not replace a visit. Guidance changes. This article was last reviewed on the date shown above.
