If you have a child that you care for, you will need to have a medical consent form for the minor on hand from time to time. This is a form that is used when you will be away from the child that you care for, which gives authority to the person who has custody of them during your absence. This form can be important if your child needs medical care or some other authorized form of support that only you, as the parent, could otherwise provide.

Child medical consent forms are commonly used when children go on school trips or are going to be with extended family without their parents or legal guardian on a trip or for an extended period of time. These forms are not necessary in order to provide basic care for a child, but they do become important when a child needs more specialized care of some kind. If you have never needed to create a consent-to-treat minor form, you will want to be sure to use this guide to help you draft one or fill one out.

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Medical Consent Form for Minor

What is a child medical consent form for minor?

When your child is going to be away from you or they are going to be cared for by someone else in your absence, you will need to make sure that you fill out a minor medical authorization form. This is a legal document that allows someone that you have named to care for your child in the case of an emergency. Should your child need medical care while they are not with you, the person that you have named on the form will be able to secure the treatment that your child requires without having limitations.

While it might seem like you will always be just a phone call away from your child, this is not always enough to satisfy the medical release process. Having an actual form on hand that allows for your child to get the care that they need when something goes wrong is important for so many reasons. This form might also go by the following additional names:

  • Authorization to Consent to Medical Treatment
  • Authorization for Minor’s Medical Treatment
  • Caregiver Medical Consent Form
  • Consent for Medical Treatment of a Minor
  • Consent to Treat Minor Children
  • Emergency Medical Consent Form
  • Medical Authorization for Minor
  • Medical Treatment Authorization Form
  • Parental Medical Consent Form

These names are all legally valid and will not impact your use of the form.

You will need to have a medical release form on hand for your child in the following circumstances:

  • The child is a minor under 18 and will be away from you
  • The child will be traveling with another person or with a group of people that does not include you
  • The child is with a babysitter or a daycare center
  • A trip leader or teacher is taking care of the child
  • The parent or the guardian is away temporarily for work or other purposes

Many schools and camps will require that this kind of form is on file for your child before they will allow a child to come with them to another location without the child’s parents. This form might even be required if you are going to be a chaperone for the trip but you are not going to be around your child at all times.

Child Medical Consent Forms

How do I write a letter to provide medical permission?

If you are going to be drafting your own medical consent form for minors, you will need to be sure that the right information is included in the document. This makes all the difference when it comes to using this form. You would not want to take the time to create this kind of document only to end up with a form that cannot be used if your child is in distress.

  1. Child Information. Your child’s full legal name needs to be on the form, as well as their date of birth, age, and address. This information is commonly needed to provide medical treatment and if the person taking care of your child does not know this information, they might be unable to secure treatment for your child.
  2. Consent Giver Information. In this section of the document, you will give consent for your child to have medical care as directed by the person named in the consent form. Be sure that the person who will be taking your child to the doctor or the hospital is the one named on the form, or the form will be of no use to anyone involved in the situation.
    You might name more than one person to have consent to treat your child as well. This is fine if you have a large number of family members who would be allowed to make treatment decisions for you in your absence. Make sure that you provide your own legal name, along with your relationship to the child in question, in this section. You might be their legal guardian as well as their biological parent. Either kind of person can authorize this form for use in their absence.
    State your contact information and then sign and date the document. The date and signature are necessary to give an effective date for the start of the form’s application and the signature is required to be sure that the form can be used.
  3. Caregiver Information. Make sure that the person that you are authorizing to provide care for your child is listed with their correct legal name and with the correct contact information. You can include as much of their information as you know, but the right information must be included in this section to make sure that the consent form can be used when it is needed.
  4. State the Kinds of Care That You Will Authorize. You can limit the use of your medical consent form to just emergency care, or you might also authorize all medical care and decisions. The difference in choosing one over the other might be related to the number of days during which you will be gone and it might have to do with your relationship to the person who is going to be caring for your child while you are away.
    You can choose to be as specific as you wish in this part of the form, and you might indicate that x-rays are allowed, but CT scans are not, or any other level of specificity that you wish. You can also indicate the most recent dates for other kinds of care, such as immunity-based items like shots and preventive care like check-ups.
  5. Doctor Information. If your child has a primary care physician, you will need to name them and provide their location and contact information in this section of the document. You can also name any other doctor who might provide regular care to your child, such as a dentist.
    This is also the section where you can fill out your preferred place for medical treatment. This might be your primary care doctor, a specific hospital, or any other location that you would prefer to see your child if there is an issue with their health while they are in someone else’s care.
  6. Insurance Information. Your insurance policy name, group number, contact information, and policyholder name should be included in this section of the document. Be specific and accurate when filling out this part of the document, as this information can be the difference between your child being allowed treatment or being prevented from getting it. Not every hospital will take in patients without insurance for treatment, and if your insurance information is not correct in the form, your child could be denied treatment.
  7. Signature Section. Make sure that you sign the document and that you date it. You will want to be sure that you do not leave this document unsigned, or it will not be valid or legally useful for the person who has custody of your child.

Samples of Form of Consent to Treat Minor

How do I fill out a minor consent form?

If you have been provided with a copy of a medical consent form for a minor to use that another entity has provided you with, you will just need to be sure that you look at all the sections of this document carefully. Be sure that you are not missing any of the form’s sections and that you read the fine print of the form. Sometimes legal forms can have information in them that you do not see because you did not read the small print of the document.

Being sure that you are comfortable with all the details in the document that you are filling out and signing is critical. There are often sections that will allow you to opt out of some kinds of permission as needed so that you can modify the agreement’s limitations, but if there are not, you will need to be certain that you are okay with what the document is allowing other parties to do on your behalf. The more that you know about the form that you are filling out, the better when it comes to caring for your child.

In most cases, if you are provided with a form of this nature, you will have to use the form that the company or business has provided since it includes their own legal releases for your child’s care. You might not be able to substitute the form for another one. If you are not comfortable with the use of the form that has been provided, your child might not be allowed to engage in the trip or activity in question.

How to choose someone to name on the consent form

If you have never had to provide a medical consent form to anyone, you might not know if just anyone can be named on this form or if there are certain people who might get priority in this kind of situation. In most cases, foster parents, qualified adult relatives like siblings, aunts and uncles, and grandparents, or stepparents are the most likely people to be named on this form.

However, if you need to send your child on a trip without you, this kind of relationship might not exist between your child and the person in charge of their care. There is no limit on the person that you name in your medical consent form other than that they are 18 years of age or older and that they are going to be with your child and handling their care. You might name a family friend, a neighbor who is caring for your child while you are away, or any other person you deem suitable for the job who is of legal age.

Medical Authorization Forms for Minor

Medical Consent Forms Are Important For Your Child’s Care

If you have to be away from your child, it is always a good idea to provide a medical consent form for minors to the person that they will be living with. This makes all the difference if your child is injured or becomes sick and needs emergency medical care of some kind. You should not leave this kind of situation up to chance, as there are some forms of medical care that your child will likely be denied if you are not there to provide consent or if there is not a valid medical consent form in the hands of the adult they are living with.

Being sure that your child can get the care that they need is important for so many reasons, particularly if they are going to be far enough away from you that you cannot easily arrive at the hospital or doctor’s office where they will be treated. This is a simple form to create or fill out, so do not be intimidated by the process of creating or completing this form.

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Tagged:ChildChild CareConsentFormsLegalMedical CareParental Consent
TemplateLab February 14th, 2023
Ryan Duffy
Ryan Duffy