Health declaration form for classes: what to include and how to collect it without paper

It's the first week of the season. Parents arrive for the first lesson and you're standing there with a binder, a pen that doesn't write and a line of kids waiting. Half the forms are unsigned, one is wet, and one is still on someone's fridge at home. In December somebody asks whether a certain child has asthma, and nobody remembers which binder it's in.

A health declaration is one of the most important things you collect from participants. It is also one of the easiest to lose. This post walks through what to think about when you put one together, and how to collect it without paper.

Important: this is not legal or medical advice. The wording a health declaration needs depends on the type of activity, the participants' age and the rules that apply to you, and those change. Before you use any form, check the wording with a lawyer or with the body responsible for your field. No form, ours included, is proof that you meet the requirements.

Why have a health declaration at all

The goal is simple: to know before the lesson whether there's anything the instructor should take into account. A child with an allergy in a cooking class, an adult with a bad back in yoga, a teenager with asthma at a surf school. When you know in advance, you can prepare. When you find out afterwards, it's too late.

For some activities, physical ones in particular, there are also rules about what to ask and when a doctor's approval is needed. That's why no single form fits everyone. A ceramics class for toddlers and a surf course for adults need very different things.

What a form usually covers

Without getting into exact wording, these are the topics that come up in many health declarations for classes and activities:

• The participant: full name and date of birth. Age changes both the questions and who signs.
• The parent or guardian, when the participant is a minor, and an emergency phone number.
• Yes/no questions about conditions that matter for the activity, such as heart problems, asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, allergies, or a recent operation or injury.
• A question about regular medication, and about medication that must be on hand during the lesson, like an inhaler.
• A details field that opens only for a "yes".
• A statement that the details are correct, and a request to tell you if anything changes.
• A signature and date.

A few questions worth asking yourself: is this question really related to the activity? Would the instructor do anything differently because of the answer? If not, maybe you don't need to ask it. Fewer questions means less sensitive data to look after, and fewer parents giving up halfway.

Who signs, and when

For a minor, the parent or guardian usually signs. An adult signs for themselves. It helps a lot when signing is part of registration itself, not something to finish "at the first lesson". Things pushed to the first lesson tend to get pushed again.

Another question is how often to ask for a new declaration. Health changes. Many businesses ask for a fresh one every season or once a year, and ask parents to update them if something changes in between. Here too, check what applies in your field.

Where paper gets stuck

• Missing forms: the parent forgot, the child is already in the water, and you have to decide whether to let them in.
• Missing signatures, or ones nobody can read.
• Sensitive information in an open binder that anyone walking past can leaf through.
• Searching: "find me Noa's declaration from September". Good luck.
• Keeping and deleting: how long to hold on to the pages, and who remembers to shred them.

A PDF sent over WhatsApp doesn't fix most of this. The parent has to print it, sign it, scan it and send it back. In practice many parents will just bring the page to the lesson, if at all.

What collecting it on the phone looks like

When you collect it digitally, the declaration is a step inside registration. The parent registers on their phone, fills in the children's details, answers the questions and signs. There's no separate page to forget. This is how it works in Classo Club:

1. In the activity form, pick a health declaration template.
2. During registration, the parent fills in a declaration for each participant: yes/no questions, with details only for a "yes".
3. A parent or guardian signs for a minor, and an adult signs for themselves, with a finger on the screen or a typed name.
4. A signed PDF is created and kept with the registration.

A parent who registers again within a year, and verifies their email with a code, can confirm the existing declaration and sign again instead of filling everything in from scratch. That saves a lot of time for a parent with three kids in three classes.

You can also add your own questions, up to 10, such as a question about swimming ability at a surf school. Each change is saved as a new version of the template, so it's always clear which wording was signed.

The wording of our general template is still awaiting legal review, and registration and settings say so. Checking that the wording suits your activity is your responsibility.

Who sees the information

A health declaration is sensitive. Decide up front who needs to see what, rather than giving the whole team access to everything. In Classo Club it's split like this:

• Instructors see only a flag: "medical info exists" or "doctor's approval needed". Never the answers.
• Owners and managers open the full declaration and download the signed PDF.
• Parents see their own family's declarations in their personal area.

Medical data is stored encrypted, and every view or download is written to an access log. Nothing medical is sent by email or in reminders. At the end of the retention period you choose, 24 months by default, the declaration and its PDF are deleted automatically. The details are in Health declarations: who sees what, the access log, retention.

What to do when someone answers "yes"

A "yes" isn't an automatic reason to say no, and it isn't something to ignore either. It's a cue for a conversation. Decide in advance who in the business handles it: calls the parent, works out what the instructor needs to know, and decides whether to ask for a doctor's approval before the first lesson.

What the instructor actually needs to know, say "inhaler in his bag, let him take a break when he asks", can be passed on in person without showing the whole declaration. On the session roster the instructor sees who is flagged, so they know who to keep an eye on.

Before you start

1. Write down what the instructor really needs to know before a lesson.
2. Check the wording with a lawyer or with the professional body in your field.
3. Decide how often you ask for a new declaration, and how long you keep it.
4. Decide who on the team sees the answers, and who sees only the flag.
5. Tie the declaration to registration, so nobody can register without it.

When the declaration is part of registration, you don't have to chase anyone. The child shows up to the lesson and the form is already signed and stored. Want to see registration from the parent's side? See How parents register.