Authorizing a medication

What your signature covers, how to give it, and how to see every dose your child was given.

For parents and guardians

Why you have to sign

Staff can't give your child anything — prescription or over the counter, their own inhaler included — without your written authorization on file. That's a licensing rule in every state, not a policy your center invented, and it's the reason a medication sitting in the app can still be sitting unused.

Until it's signed, staff have no Log dose button at all. So if you've dropped a medication off and nothing is happening, an unsigned authorization is the first thing to check.

Finding the medication

Your center adds the medication first — the name, the dose, when to give it, and the dates it covers. You'll see it in two places:

1. On your child's profile Go to More, tap your child's profile, and look under Medical for the Medications card. If something needs you, it says so there.
2. Under Health Go to More → Health → Medications. This is where you sign.

You only ever see your own children's medications.

Signing it

1. Read it first Check the medication name, the dosage, the schedule and the end date against what you handed over and what the label says. If any of it is wrong, don't sign — tell your center and have them correct it.
2. Tap Authorize It's on the medication.
3. Type your full legal name Not a nickname. This is the name on the record.
4. Sign Sign with your finger in the signature box. A typed name on its own won't save — the signature is the authorization.
5. Add anything conditional Authorization notes is the place for "only with food" or "only if she's still coughing".

The medication then reads Authorized with your name and the date, and staff can give it.

Signing at the center instead

You can also sign at drop-off on a center device. A staff member opens the medication, hands you the device, and you type your name and sign. It's recorded as signed in person with that staff member as the witness — it counts exactly the same, and you won't be asked again in your own app.

What staff can't do is sign for you. The app records who was actually holding the device, so a verbal "yes, go ahead" at the door can't be entered as your authorization — which protects you as much as it protects them.

What your signature covers

That medication, at that dose, on that schedule, until the end date — and nothing else. A different dose, a different medication, or a course that runs past the date all need a new signature.

Once the end date passes, the authorization has run out. The medication shows Expired and staff are blocked from giving it until you sign again. That's deliberate: it's what stops a course you finished months ago being given out of a cupboard.

Following the doses

Every dose is logged as it's given — what was given, at what time, and by whom — against the authorization you signed. Ask your center if you want to see the log for your child; it's a reasonable request and they can pull it up.

Changing or stopping it

Tell your center, and tell them in person or by message rather than assuming the app will carry it. They can mark a medication inactive, which stops doses immediately, or change the dates. Don't rely on an end date to stop something you've decided to stop today.

More: All family guides