What Is Medical Clearance for a Day-care Center?

Licensed and accredited day-care centers use the medical clearance process to ensure that teachers and other workers, including volunteers, are healthy and suitable to care for children. Health concerns in child-care programs include safe environments, control of infectious diseases and the ability of adults to care properly for the children in their charge. State licensing agencies require day-care centers to use the medical clearance form to document efforts to address health concerns and protect children.

Your state licensing agency's medical clearance form might have a different name, such as adult medical statement, health appraisal or medical clearance request. Whether you operate a day-care center in a residential or commercial facility, licensing regulations require all employees to submit the form before employment and annually thereafter. The applicant or employee signs a form authorizing the release of medical information. Licensing regulations require day-care facilities to maintain records of the forms and present them when required by licensing agencies.

Child-care workers undergo medical exams and tests as part of the medical clearance process. A physician or other approved health-care professional reviews the results and completes the form. Medical clearance forms ask specific questions of the physician. Of primary importance is documentation that the child-care worker is free of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis or hepatitis. The physician answers questions about whether the day-care worker takes medication, has mental health problems or other disorders, such as physical limitations, that might pose a risk to children.

Medical clearance forms often ask the physician for an opinion about the day-care worker’s overall health and ability to perform the duties required of a child-care worker. The physician may indicate if special accommodations are required for the worker, such as for a disability or for vision or hearing problems. Some forms include a section for the physician to add confidential comments or recommendations. In the interests of protecting the health and welfare of children, child-care administrators want to know if the individual is suited mentally, emotionally and physically for the demands of working in a day-care center.

Many day-care providers use medical clearance forms when a worker or child is suspected of having an infectious disease. The provider requires submission of the medical clearance form, also called a medical release form, signed by a physician and stating that the individual has been treated or examined and is no longer infectious. This type of medical clearance form differs from the form used for pre- and continuing employment and usually states that the physician releases the individual to return to the day-care facility.