Extracurricular, Sports Physical, and Driver Ed Consent for Grandparents in West Virginia

The school sends home a permission slip for basketball tryouts and a sports physical form — both requiring a parent's signature. You're the grandparent who makes dinner, checks homework, and drives to practice, but your name isn't on any court order. Can you sign?

It depends on which consent instrument you hold.

Sports Physicals and Athletic Participation

A sports physical is a medical examination, so the consent question falls under health care authority. If you have a notarized Caregiver Consent Affidavit under WV Code §49-2-703, you can authorize the physical exam, vaccines, and any follow-up treatment the child needs to clear the athletic eligibility requirements.

If you hold a Power of Attorney under §49-8-4, it covers both health care and school activities — including signing the school's athletic participation forms.

Most school districts accept either instrument. For the sports physical, §49-2-702 requires a health care facility or practitioner to honor a notarized affidavit unless it knows that a parent, legal custodian, or guardian has made a contrary decision; §49-2-705 protects good-faith reliance. Those health-care rules do not set who can sign the school's athletic participation forms.

Extracurricular Activities and Field Trips

School clubs, field trips, after-school programs, and community sports leagues all require someone to sign permission slips and emergency contact forms. A broad Power of Attorney under §49-8-4 explicitly authorizes a caregiver to handle school activities and daily care decisions — this covers signing field trip permission slips, registering the child for school-sponsored clubs, and authorizing pickups by designated adults.

The health care affidavit (§49-2-703) does not cover school-activity permissions. If you only have the affidavit, you'll want to talk with the school about what additional documentation they accept for non-medical signatures. Some districts have their own relative caregiver forms for these situations.

Driver Education

West Virginia driver education programs require parental consent for minors. For DMV paperwork, the current application form requires a parent or guardian signature only when an applicant is under 18 and applying for an instruction permit.

For the classroom portion of driver education offered through schools, a Power of Attorney (§49-8-4) that delegates educational authority should satisfy the school's consent requirement to enroll in the course.

For a minor applying for an instruction permit, the DMV application requires a parent or guardian signature. Whether a notarized POA satisfies that requirement varies — check directly with your local DMV office before the child reaches the application stage, so there are no surprises.

If a parent is available and cooperative, having them sign the DMV forms directly is the simplest path.

Keeping Your Documents Current

All of these activities happen across the school year, and your consent authority has a built-in expiration. Both the caregiver affidavit and the power of attorney last a maximum of one year. If the child's soccer season spans the renewal date, make sure you re-execute the documents before they lapse.

Keep notarized copies in the child's school file, with the pediatrician's office, and with any program coordinator who needs to reach you in an emergency.

The West Virginia school and medical consent guide includes a statutory expiry tracker and a checklist of every form you need for school, sports, and medical visits — organized so nothing falls through the cracks.

See more West Virginia guides →