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Encourage or even help them to memorize a few essential phone numbers in case their phones are ever lost, stolen, or damaged. Of course, the era of Snoopy address books is probably long gone, so this is a plug for making sure you urge them to back up their phones to their (or your family’s) iCloud or Google Drive.

Health records

At some point in the weeks before college, aspiring first-years need to provide proof of immunizations plus information regarding their medical history of epilepsy, diabetes, or any other physical or mental health conditions that might impact a student’s life at college or need for medical accommodations, per the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

But sending the requested documentation to the school isn’t enough; your newly-minuted adult needs to know and have access to this information. Make sure they either have a paper folder for medical records or a shared digital folder, perhaps in Dropbox, where you mutually maintain potentially necessary information.

It’s not enough that Mom & Dad and the school can access these things; your child may need to provide medical professionals with information about their blood type, health conditions (past and present), medications, surgeries, etc. (Seriously, your kids need to know their blood type!)

Legal documents related to healthcare

There are two federal laws related to maintaining the privacy of a student’s medical records. Both refer to when students are aged 18 or above, and in the first case, when students are at college. 

The first is the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It protects the privacy of a students’ educational records, including a student’s treatment or care at a campus health center (as well as grades and academic standing, and any disciplinary actions against them). This applies not only to students who have reached 18, but all college students.

The second, you are likely to have more familiarity with. The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPAA, protects all medical information.

If a student has turned 18, or in the case of FERPA, is at college, Mom and Dad don’t have any legal right to access this information. But of course, that doesn’t mean your student might not want you to have access. This means you need to talk to them about three essential documents that will allow you to know what’s going on with them if they need medical care and allow you to make decisions for them if they are unable. 

• HIPAA Release — This grants you permission to be involved in knowing what’s going on with your student’s health situation. You’ve probably had to sign a lot of your own HIPAA releases, so you know that your student will need to specify each health care provider (so, a physician, a healthcare center, a hospital) whom they authorize to release medical/treatment information. Your student’s school health care center may have links to release forms on their web site. For security, encourage your student to fill out a HIPAA release before drop-off day.
• FERPA Waiver — This allows a student to select what kinds of information they want to share with their parents. Rather than giving blanket access, the student can choose to grant access to medical records but not grades, or vice versa. The college registrar’s office can provide a FERPA waivers, which may be a paper or online form.  
• Power of Attorney for Healthcare (also called a healthcare proxy) — We’ve talked about this document many times, including in How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents.

Whereas a HIPAA release and FERPA waiver allow you to be part of the conversation about your young person’s medical status, a Power of Attorney for Healthcare allows you to make medical decisions for your 18+ student in the unfortunate event they are unable to do so.

Google “Power of Attorney for Healthcare” or “Medical Power of Attorney” and your state name to find sample forms online. (If your student is attending school out of state, you may need a form for both states.)

Obviously, keep copies of these documents in a secure place where you will be able to access them if your student has medical needs requiring your support.

Help Them Register to Vote

I am cautiously hopeful that I shouldn’t have to explain to you (nor you to your college-bound student) why it’s essential to be politically aware and educated, to register to vote, and to exercise that vote (not just for the highest offices, but for all down-ticket offices and ballot measures).

“I Voted” Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Laws governing registering to vote vary by state. Some states have voting by mail; others strictly require voting in person and limit absentee ballots. Deadlines also vary by state. Determine with your child whether it makes sense to register in your home county or (if possible and/or necessary) at their college residents. Be aware that voter registration deadlines are looming in many states.

Once they’re registered to vote, teach them how to evaluate candidates and issues, how to secure an absentee ballot (if applicable), and make sure they know their protections. (For example, once they are in line to vote, no matter how long the line is, or how far past official poll closing hours, they should stay in line and are guaranteed the right to cast a ballot.)

Share resources, such as:

• Voting Registration Guide by State
• Away at College? How and Where Do You Vote?
• How to Vote in College: Know Your Rights
• Rock the Vote
• Make a Plan to Vote (StudentVote.org)
• United States Election Commission Assistance Program

The point is not to tell your student for whom they should vote, but to empower them with all the resources so that they can make educated decisions that reflect their beliefs, and to understand the value of their participation in the process.

ADULTING SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE BASE 101

It would take a book (see the end of today’s post) and not merely a blog post to review all the things you should make sure first-year students should know before they head off to college. But you really don’t want to get a text like the ones in this video. (Be sure to click the audio icon at the bottom to un-mute. If you want to play it again, click the “replay” circular arrow icon in the lower left corner, not the play button in the middle of the screen.)  

@the_leighton_show Posting this again for all the parents who just dropped kids off at college #teenager #text #college #freshman #funny ♬ original sound – The Leighton Show

A Punch List for Adulting

The rest of this post is not designed to tell you how to teach what your kids need to know; that will depend on your family’s location, lifestyle, standards, and values. Rather, treat it as a punch list.

Traditionally, a punch list is a document that lists the final work items remaining before a construction project is considered complete. More specifically, contractors use a punch list to add all the work that isn’t included in the official specifications in the construction contract; it’s the stuff that comes up later. The punch list is often made up of various tasks that were skipped because they weren’t considered originally or overlooked in favor of tasks that were more important at the time.

Well, your kid is your construction project. You’ve been building this project for 18 or so years, and you’re ready for the closing date, but you don’t want to suddenly realize there’s no time left to complete or fix what left undone. What follows today and in this series, will provide opportunities for you to tighten the bannister on the ladder of your child’s college years and adult life.

How Money Works

Many people get out into the post-college world without any idea how manage their finances.

Sometimes this is because their parents aren’t equipped to teach them the skills; other times, parents assume that certain knowledge and skills are common sense.

However, I can assure you that writing a check is no more “common sensical” to the average college-bound Gen-Z student than mobile deposits or CashApp is to your average elder Boomer or Silent Generation grandparent. 

Talk to your student to figure out what they need to know about the following:

• How to create a budget (and keep to it)
• How to track when bills are due and ensure they pay them on time (and understand the basics of how interest rates, fines, and fees rack up)
• How to write a check (because yes, sometimes that’s the only way to pay for something)
• How to endorse a check (see above, re: Grandma)
• How to fill out a deposit slip and withdrawal ticket, and how to comport themselves in a bank, in case ATMs are down and they actually have to (gasp!) speak to someone.

• How to use a banking app (including for mobile deposit of a check)
• How to use a check register — Sigh, I know this is a lost cause these days, but learning how to keep a check register (even if you never write a check) is the key to reconciling and balancing your account and thus keeping from being overdrawn or going over budget.
• How to call, go online, or use the bank app to check the bank balance.
• How to safely use mobile financial and payment apps — For those of us who rarely, if ever, use such apps, it can be a surprise that the default is for users of platforms like Venmo to share and display transactions (and who they paid)!

Encourage kids to keep transaction information on financial sharing apps private. Nerdwallet’s What College Students Need to Know About Payment Apps has some sound advice for protecting against fraud and safely using these apps.

• How to understand the difference between checking and savings accounts, and between debit and credit cards. If your student does not already have a bank account, make sure to help them open one that has a branch (and ATMs) in their college community in order to avoid non-member ATM fees. Make sure they understand which ATM networks they are in and how to identify non-member ATMs.

More generally, ensure your student understands how banks work — and how your family finances will work as it pertains to them while they’re at college.

If you’ll be funding some or all of their at-school lives, explain how much money you will provide them (at the start of the semester, or each month), what they will be responsible for covering, and what to do in a financial emergency.

They may be new adults, but they are still your children, so encourage them to come to you with problems so you can problem-solve together. (This is good advice for non-financial situations, as well.)

Make sure your student understands how credit works, and discourage opening lines of credit early on. Most of the predatory methods for signing college kids up for credit cards that were common when I was an undergraduate are now illegal. Still, help them to be wary. They can sign up and start building a credit history later in their undergraduate years.

• How to tip, when to tip, and how to determine how much to tip
• How to sign up for student discounts on everything from computers to clothes, electronics to entertainment, retail shopping to restaurant food.

This may require showing a student ID at a local store, downloading an app, granting permission to be texted or emailed, or other more privacy-invading options. Your student will have to weigh the discount against the value of granting a company access to them. For starters, check out these resources for getting student discounts:

• • 75+ Best Student Discounts to Use in College (CollegeData.com)
  • The best college student discounts: Where to find them and how to use them (CNBC)
  • The Best Student Discounts, Deals and Freebies for 2024 (CNET)
• How taxes work, and more specifically, which tax-related documents to save and share with you so that you can help them prepare their taxes. They may receive W-2s from student jobs, Form 1098-T tuition statements, Form 8863 for American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning Credits, etc. Taxes are likely the last thing on your student’s mind right now, but understanding the American Opportunity credits may be a huge boon for your family.

If this is your first go-round with sending a kid off to college, I recognize that this might be overwhelming. Your student’s college will likely provide some financial literacy workshops during orientation and ongoing, but don’t depend on them having the time or inclination to check them out.

Start by working through Study Corgi‘s A College Student’s Guide to Financial Literacy: Benefits, Tips, + Resources. It has some stellar infographics, links, and resources for guiding a young person through getting a handle on all-things-financial. 

Another good option is The Financial Diet‘s The College Student’s Guide To Money video series on YouTube. It covers budgeting, saving, investing, mindset, and making big money decisions. Start here and then continue on with the playlist:

How Insurance Works

Your student may need some or all of the following insurance coverage while at school:

• Health insurance — The college may offer a healthcare plan. When I was in college, I was covered by both my parents’ plan and the school’s plan, but things have changed since I was a student and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) guarantees that your child can stay on your health insurance until reaching the age of 26. If your student is staying in-state, that should be relatively straightforward; if they’re attending college out of state, and depending on whether they will need a Marketplace plan, your student may need to apply separately. Begin familiarizing yourself with the options described on the ACA page for college students.

Doctor with stethoscope photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash

Students need to understand how co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits work. Start by walking them through Paper Doll Explains Your Health Insurance Explanation of Benefits. (Who knows; you might learn something, too. Meanwhile, your student will be head-and-shoulders above where most college kids are in understanding health insurance.)

• Car insurance — Students taking cars to college need to have insurance. Maybe your student will be on your insurance; maybe they’ll get their own policy. However your family arranges finances, it’s essential your student understands how car insurance works (and what to do in a car-related emergency).

Students, and young people in general, might be inclined to pick the least expensive coverage without knowing what it actually covers and what it doesn’t.

As with health insurance, a lot of the language surrounding car insurance can be mystifying. Try reading Organize for an Accident: Don’t Crash Your Car Insurance Paperwork [UPDATED] together to gauge what questions they might still have so you can help them make good decisions now and in the future.

Toy Car Photo by Atish Sewmangel on Unsplash

Along with standard car insurance, you may want to sign your student up for AAA or an automobile club associated with a family credit card, insurance company, or car manufacturer. Most services are fairly inexpensive and will give you (and your student) confidence in case the car needs urgent towing or emergency roadside assistance. 

• Renter’s insurance — Homeowners know they have to have insurance, but young people (and renters, in general), are sometime surprised to realize that they should have coverage for their rented apartments. In fact, some apartment complexes require it. Luckily, renter’s insurance is (relatively) inexpensive at between $100 and $200 a year. 

Most colleges don’t require separate renter’s insurance for students living in a dorm. Parents should consult their own agents to see if their homeowner’s insurance will cover their student’s “stuff” while off at college.

Remember, renter’s insurance doesn’t just cover the cost of replacing expensive items (like computers) if they are stolen or damaged; it can also protected your whole family from liability claims if your student accidentally injures someone or damages their property. 

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This is just the beginning of the advice and considerations you’ll want to discuss with your college-bound student. As this series continues next week, we’ll explore more topics, including how to:

• Stay safe (guard your personal safety on campus)
• Avoid an all-pink wardrobe (AKA: how to do laundry)
• Keep the crud away (how to protect health and hygiene)
• Stay fit and fed (what college kids should know about exercise and nutrition at school)
• Master time management at college
• Care for a car at school
• Develop essential adulting skills 

The next post will also have some follow-up resources, both for parents and students, to be as prepared as possible for college life.

Until next time, when we get deeper into these resources, give yourself grace if you are stressed about sending your “construction project” off to college. Whether Leighton’s videos makes you laugh or just comfort you that you’re not alone in your frustrations with GenZ, you might want to look at his book, What Time Is Noon?: Hilarious Hilarious Texts, Ridiculous Feedback, and Not-So-Subtle Advice from Teenagers.