Who can sign a permission slip?
Usually a parent or legal guardian. Real families are more varied than a signature line, though: step-parents, grandparents who do the school run, a parent away for work, a student who just turned 18. Here's how schools tend to decide, and how to make another adult's signature count.
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Getting the right signature
- Ask the office which parents or guardians are in your child's enrollment records.
- For another adult to sign routine forms, a parent can usually name them in a signed note or on the contact form.
- If a court order limits the other parent's decisions or contact, give the school a copy.
- Before a long absence, give the school a signed letter naming who may sign school forms while you're away and how to reach you.
- Whoever signs uses their own name and signature and writes their relationship to the child.
- Emergency medical consent and overnight trips may still need a parent or guardian, even where a step-parent signs routine slips.
Choose the field trip slip or other school form your child brought home as a PDF, type in the details, tick the boxes and sign as parent or guardian. It opens on your device and is never uploaded.
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Updated 27 October 2026 · Written by Joe Farwick, who runs this site
The short answer: whoever the school has on file
A permission slip is the school's own document, so the school decides whose signature it accepts. In practice that means the parents or guardians named in your child's enrollment records. When the office isn't sure, it usually asks for a parent's signature rather than risk sending a child on a trip without proper consent.
Federal student-records law gives a useful hint about how schools think. FERPA defines a parent as a natural parent, a guardian, or an individual acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or guardian. That definition governs access to education records rather than trip forms, but many schools work from the same list of adults for both.
Separated or divorced parents
Under FERPA, a school gives full rights to either parent unless it has been given a court order, state law or other legally binding document that specifically takes those rights away. Schools usually apply the same approach to routine slips: either parent can sign. If an order limits the other parent's decisions or contact, give the school a copy; a verbal warning at the front desk isn't enough for staff to act on.
Step-parents
The U.S. Department of Education says a step-parent may count as a parent under FERPA when they are present day to day with the natural parent and the child, and the other parent is absent from that home. A step-parent who doesn't live with the child doesn't get those rights.
For permission slips, many schools accept a step-parent's signature on routine forms if the step-parent is listed as a contact. Forms with more weight, such as emergency medical consent or an overnight trip, may still need a parent or guardian. Adoption or a guardianship order removes the doubt entirely. Until then, the simplest fix is a short note from the parent to the office naming the step-parent as allowed to sign school forms.
Grandparents and other caregivers
A grandparent who helps with pickups can often sign a day-trip slip once a parent has told the school in writing that it's fine. When a child actually lives with a grandparent or another relative, state law may offer a formal route. In California, for example, a caregiver who completes a Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit can enroll the child in school and consent to school-related medical care, and a relative who completes the longer version gets broader authority over medical and dental care.
Other states let a parent hand over some of their authority with a power of attorney. Arizona's version allows a parent to delegate powers over a child's care and custody for up to six months. The names, forms and limits differ from state to state, so check your state's rules or ask the school which document it accepts.
When a parent is away
Work travel, military deployment or a hospital stay can leave the adult at home without authority on paper. Before a long absence, give the school a signed letter naming who may sign school forms while you're away and how to reach you, or use a power of attorney for the child if your state has one. With digital slips, the absent parent can often just sign on their phone and send the PDF back from wherever they are.
Students who turn 18
Most U.S. states set the age of majority at 18; Alabama and Nebraska use 19 and Mississippi 21. Under FERPA, rights over education records pass to the student at 18. Some districts already let adult students sign their own trip forms: the DC Public Schools field trip policy, for instance, asks for forms signed by the parent or guardian of each student, or by each participating adult student. Other schools keep asking parents as a matter of policy, so check the slip or ask the trip leader.
Please don't sign someone else's name
Even with the other person's blessing, writing their name on a form misleads whoever relies on it. If the slip needs the other parent's signature, send them the PDF so they can sign it themselves; it takes a minute on a phone. If you sign on someone's behalf because the school allows it, sign your own name and add a note such as "for Maria Lopez, with her permission".
Sources
- 34 CFR § 99.3: definitions of parent and eligible student (FERPA)
- 34 CFR § 99.4: rights of either parent
- U.S. Department of Education: Can stepparents, grandparents and other caregivers be considered parents under FERPA?
- California Family Code § 6550: Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit
- Arizona Revised Statutes § 14-5104: delegation of powers by a parent
- Legal Information Institute: adult and age of majority
- District of Columbia Public Schools: Field Trips & Student Travel Policy (January 2025)
Who can sign: common questions
- Can an older brother or sister sign?
- Normally not, even if they're over 18, unless they are the child's legal guardian or a parent has authorized them in writing and the school accepts that.
- Can a babysitter or nanny sign?
- Only with the parent's written authorization and the school's agreement, and rarely for medical consent. It's usually quicker for the parent to sign the PDF on their phone.
- How does the school know I really signed it?
- From the signature alone, it often can't. That's why a reply from a parent's own email address, with the signed PDF attached, is more convincing than a slip handed in by the child.
- Does it cost anything for a relative to sign here?
- Anyone can open the slip here, fill it in and place a signature for free. To download the signed PDF, the person signing needs a subscription, €2.99 a month or €24.99 a year, cancel anytime with access until the paid period ends. Signing a printout by hand costs nothing at all.