Don’t Send Your Kids Back to School Without These Documents

As summer draws to a close and the buzz of back-to-school preparations fills the air, there’s a crucial responsibility that often goes unnoticed: appointing legal guardians for your minor children. These guardians step in to care for your kids if you’re unable to do so yourself, offering vital protection and support.

Amid the hustle of back-to-school shopping and bidding farewell to the summer season, designating legal guardians might appear less urgent. However, this perception couldn’t be farther from reality. With children spending a significant portion of their day under the care of teachers, coaches, and babysitters during the school year, it’s crucial to ensure that your chosen guardians possess the legal authority to look after them beyond brief moments, especially in case of accidents or unforeseen circumstances.

For parents with college-bound children, it’s worth noting that once they head off to college, your decision-making authority and access to their medical records during emergencies diminish, unless they establish Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives.

Formalize Your Guardianship Arrangements

While it’s tempting to rely on informal agreements with friends or family as potential caretakers for your children, it’s essential to avoid relying solely on these arrangements. Unforeseen events, such as unconsciousness or death, could result in your child being placed under protective custody by social services. This could lead to your child being cared for by strangers within the foster care system, or even by individuals you’d never want to raise your kids, appointed by well-intentioned courts.

Neglecting to legally appoint guardians also opens the door to family conflicts over caregiving responsibilities and exposes loved ones to costly and protracted legal processes. In fact, failing to name multiple guardians is one of the 6 Common Mistakes (link to lead magnet) people often make when selecting guardians for their children.

You hold the insight into your child’s needs and your family dynamics, making you the best judge of who would provide the optimal care if you were unable to. Unfortunately, without documented guardian selections, a judge unfamiliar with your preferences would ultimately decide on your child’s future caregivers.

Securing Your Child’s Well-being

To ensure unwavering care for your children from trusted individuals, crafting a comprehensive Kids Protection Plan® is essential. This plan allows you to designate temporary guardians for immediate emergencies and permanent guardians for the long term. Additionally, it equips you with emergency ID cards containing guardian contact details for first responders, ensuring your child’s safety during accidents.

With a Kids Protection Plan®, you not only establish legal guardians but also create a detailed safety strategy to guarantee your child’s welfare in any circumstance. For college-bound kids, this approach extends to creating young adult planning documents like Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives, enabling access to their accounts and medical decisions if they become incapacitated.

A Mindful Approach for Tranquility

As your dedicated Personal Family Lawyer®, we are committed to safeguarding your children’s well-being through all scenarios. As the back-to-school season approaches, don’t overlook this vital task: appointing legal guardians and forming your personalized Kids Protection Plan®.

Our exclusive planning process starts with a Family Wealth Planning Session™. Through this session, we understand your family dynamics and assets, sharing legal insights to illustrate what would occur if the unexpected happened. Based on this, we tailor a plan to suit your situation, ensuring your family’s care and protection, granting you peace of mind as the new academic year unfolds.

To learn more and get started with your own Family Wealth Planning Session™, click the button below to schedule a complimentary discovery call. I can’t wait to serve you.

This article is a service of Law Office of Dana Baker, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session.