How to Fill Out and Submit a Parental Consent Form

A parental consent form is a signed document in which a parent or legal guardian authorizes another adult, a school, a medical provider, or a travel companion to supervise, transport, or make specific decisions for their child. You either fill out a form the receiving organization gives you or draft your own, sign it, and deliver it to whoever needs it on file. For a school day trip, a plain signature is enough. For international travel, passport applications where one parent cannot appear, and certain medical situations, you will need the signature notarized, and in some cases apostilled for use abroad.

What to Put on the Form

There is no single government-issued template that covers every situation. If you are drafting your own, or checking that a template you downloaded is complete, make sure it includes:

The child’s full legal name and date of birth, exactly as they appear on the birth certificate or passport. Nicknames cause problems at border crossings and hospital admissions.
The parent or guardian’s full name, phone number, email, and mailing address.
The designated adult’s full name and contact details.
A specific description of the activity or authority being granted. “School field trip to the National Zoo on March 15, 2026” is better than “field trip.” For caregiving, spell out what the adult can do: pick the child up from school, consent to routine medical care, enroll in activities.
Start and end dates. For a single event, one date is enough. For ongoing care, set a defined period so the form cannot be used indefinitely.
Emergency medical authorization, if applicable, along with allergies, medications, conditions, and the child’s health insurance carrier and policy number.
Signature and date lines for the parent or guardian, and space for a notary seal if the situation calls for notarization.

Keep medical authorization language tight. Some states require written parental permission before a surgical procedure, physical exam, or prescription for a minor, with an exception for genuine emergencies where a parent cannot be reached. Blanket wording like “any and all medical procedures” may grant broader authority than you intend; name the categories of care you actually mean to authorize.

Signing It Correctly

Read the entire form before writing anything. Schools and camps often combine permission, a liability waiver, and a medical release on the same page.¹ Match every name on the form to government-issued ID. If your child’s passport says “Katherine” and you write “Katie,” that mismatch can create friction at a hospital desk or a border checkpoint.

Where the form uses checkboxes for different categories of permission (field trips, athletic participation, medical treatment, media release), tick only the ones that apply. Checking every box for convenience grants broader permission than you may want. If you are writing your own form, keep the language narrow: a specific activity, specific dates, a specific adult.

If You Share Custody

Check your custody order before you sign anything that delegates authority. In many states, a parent with joint legal custody can sign a delegation of parental authority alone, but the scope is limited to day-to-day decisions; major decisions like changing schools or authorizing non-routine medical care require both parents.² If both parents sign, the caregiver’s authority is broader. A sole custodial parent should keep a copy of the custody decree with any consent form that may be questioned.

When Notarization Is Required

Not every consent form needs notarization. A school permission slip for a day trip does not. Notarization is expected or required for:

International travel with a child when both parents are not present. CBP recommends a notarized consent letter, and many destination countries require one.³
Form DS-3053 (Statement of Consent) when applying for a child’s passport and one parent cannot appear in person.
Cruise lines and international airlines, which may ask for notarized consent when a child travels without both parents.

To get a form notarized, bring the unsigned document and a valid government-issued photo ID to a commissioned notary public. Sign in front of the notary. The notary verifies your identity, witnesses the signature, and applies an official seal. Do not sign ahead of time; a notary cannot notarize a signature they did not watch you make.

Banks, UPS Store locations, shipping centers, and many law offices offer notary services. Fees are capped by state. Pennsylvania limits acknowledgment fees to $5 per signature.⁴ North Carolina allows up to $10 for an in-person notarization and $25 for a remote online notarization.⁵ Remote online notarization, where you appear by video call, generally runs $25 to $50 and is available around the clock.

International Travel

The United States does not require proof of both parents’ consent for a child to leave the country, but many destination countries do.⁶ If your child is traveling with one parent or another adult, the absent parent’s notarized consent letter is often expected at the destination’s border. Contact the destination country’s embassy or consulate before you travel; requirements vary widely.⁷

The State Department does not publish a standardized template. It recommends that the letter be in English, notarized, and include a statement along the lines of: “I acknowledge that my child is traveling outside the country with [name of the adult] with my permission.”⁷ Beyond that, include the child’s full name and date of birth, the travel dates and destinations, the accompanying adult’s name and contact information, and both parents’ signatures where possible.

Apostille for Use Abroad

Some countries require an apostille on top of notarization. An apostille is a certificate that authenticates the notary’s seal for international use under the Hague Convention, accepted by more than 120 countries. The sequence:

Sign the consent form in front of a notary.
Submit the notarized form to the Secretary of State in the same state where the notarization took place. A different state’s office will reject it.
Pay the apostille fee. Fees vary by state, and some states offer expedited service for an added charge.
If the destination country’s official language is not English, have the apostilled document translated by a certified translator. Some countries require the translation itself to be notarized.

Start early. Mail-in apostille processing can take several weeks.

Delivering the Form and Keeping Proof

Hand school forms to the administrative office or upload through the parent portal. Deliver medical consents in person or through a secure patient portal; do not email unencrypted forms containing your child’s health information and insurance details.

If you are mailing a notarized consent form to an organization or embassy, use certified mail with a return receipt. Keep a high-quality scan or photocopy before mailing the original. For travel consent, the accompanying adult should carry the original and you should keep a copy at home. Ask the receiving party to confirm receipt in writing, by email at minimum. If a dispute later arises about whether consent was given, that confirmation is what you will rely on.

Revoking Consent

You can revoke a parental consent form at any time by notifying the party holding it. Put the revocation in writing: a signed letter or email that identifies the child, identifies the specific form, states that you are withdrawing consent, and gives the date the revocation takes effect. Deliver it to the same party that received the original form. Verbal revocation is harder to prove and easier to dispute. Once the third party receives written revocation, their authority under the original form ends.

Revoking a general consent form you voluntarily gave is straightforward. This is different from withdrawing consent to the termination of parental rights, which courts treat as nearly irrevocable.

Where a Consent Form Stops Working

A parental consent form is not a substitute for legal guardianship or a custody order. It cannot transfer legal custody. It cannot override a court’s custody order. And for major decisions, a form signed by one parent with joint custody may not be enough.²

If you need another adult to care for your child for an extended period, look into your state’s delegation of parental authority or temporary guardianship statutes. Many states offer a statutory form, sometimes called a power of attorney for a minor child, that grants broader authority than a basic consent form and remains valid for a set period, often six months. These delegations let a caregiver enroll the child in school, consent to medical treatment, and apply for benefits. Court-ordered guardianship goes further but requires a judge’s approval.

Consent forms apply to minors. The age of majority is 18 in most states, 19 in Alabama and Nebraska, and 21 in Mississippi.⁸ Once your child reaches the age of majority in your state, a parental consent form no longer has legal effect.

1
Lehigh University. Waiver and Release of Liability Form for Activities Off Campus
2
Michigan Legal Help. Giving Someone Temporary Legal Power to Make Decisions for Your Child
3
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Children Traveling to Another Country Without Their Parents
4
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Notary Public Fees
5
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 10B-31 – Fees for Notarial Acts
6
U.S. Department of State. Travel with Minors
7
USAGov. International Travel Documents for Children
8
Legal Information Institute. Age of Majority