Medication Administration Assistance

Sample Checklist - Parent and Guardian Responsibilities

This sample checklist provides local educational agencies with helpful information that may be given to parents and guardians when children need to take medication before school or take medication at school.

1. Talk to your child’s doctor about making a medicine schedule so that your child does not have to take medicine while at school.
   
   
2. If your child is regularly taking medicine for an ongoing health problem, even if he or she only takes the medicine at home, give a written note to the school nurse or other designated school employee at the beginning of each school year. You must list the medicine being taken, the current amount taken, and the name of the doctor who prescribed it (Education [EC] Code Section 49480).
   
   
3. If your child must take medicine while at school, give the school a written note from you and a written note from your child’s doctor or other health care provider, who is licensed to practice in California. Provide new, updated notes at the beginning of each school year and whenever there is any change in the medicine, instructions, or doctor (EC Section 49423).
   
   
4. As parent or guardian, you must supply the school with all medicine your child must take during the school day. You or another adult must deliver the medicine to school, except medicine your child is authorized to carry and take by him or herself.
   
   
5. All controlled medicine, like Ritalin, must be counted and recorded on a medicine log when delivered to the school. You or another adult who delivered the medicine should verify the count by signing the log.
   
   
6. Each medicine your child must be given at school must be in a separate container labeled by a pharmacist licensed in the United States. The container must list your child’s name, doctor’s name, name of the medicine, and instructions for when to take the medicine and how much to take.
   
   
7. Pick up all discontinued, outdated, and/or unused medicine before the end of the school year.
   
   
8. Know and follow the medicine policy of your child’s school.

For information on student rights related to medication administration assistance, please visit the California Department of Education Family Involvement and Partnerships.