Back to School Physicals

​​​​The Nebraska State Law requires school physical exams before entering kindergarten and seventh grade. These exams must be conducted no more than 6 months before school starts in the fall, which means parents can beat the rush by setting up school physical appointments in the spring for the following school year.

• Kindergarten and seventh grade physicals may be scheduled after March 1st.
• Annual sports physicals may be scheduled after May 1st.

Boys Town Pediatrics recommends that ​your child receive annual health maintenance checkups, even though it is not required by your school. A good way to remember your child's checkup is to schedule this around your child's birthday. These checkups are a great time to talk with your pediatrician about any questions or concerns regarding your child's health, development or growth.

What to Expect at Back to School Physicals

Kindergarten & Seventh Grade Physicals

• Review immunization record
  
• Check height, weight and body mass index
• Perform a full developmental assessment
• Screen your child's vision and hearing
• Perform a thorough physical exam
• Discuss safety issues
• Provide anticipatory guidance regarding nutrition, sleep and behavior

In addition to the above, seventh grade physicals include a one-on-one consultation with a physician about hygiene, relationships, social and school activities, and any questions the child may have about his/her physical or mental health.

Hemoglobin levels and urine tests are no longer routine checks in either of the standard physicals and will only be collected if indicated.

What to Expect at Sports Physicals

If your child is planning on participating in a school or organized sporting activity, he or she will need an annual sports physical. Check with your child's school or organization as these physicals may be required before tryouts.

• Check his height and weight
• Perform a full developmental assessment
• Perform a thorough physical exam
• Discuss safety issues
• Provide anticipatory guidance regarding nutrition, sleep and behavior

You will receive a form from your child's school that you should bring to the appointment. Your pediatrician will fill out the needed information regarding the physical exam and any health concerns regarding your child as well as attach your child's immunization record.

Appointments for school and sports physicals have a tendency to fill up fast so give your pediatrician a call well in advance and please allow a full hour for the examination. Schedule your appointment today with Boys Town Pediatrics.

• Transcript

  Back to School Physicals

  Charles J. Sprague, M.D.
  Boys Town Pediatrics

  ​Back to school physicals are going to be required at kindergarten and then again at entry to junior high, which for most people is considered seventh-grade and then you have to have annual physicals once a year when you're doing junior high or high school sports.

  We certainly think the kids should be seen once a year, every year, regardless. If somebody comes in only when there's a problem you don't have any historical data to help you out. There are things with growth that we can, you can follow trends and you can intervene and prevent before there are problem or a crisis.

  What happens at a physical?

  Things you can expect at your back to school physical are going to be your standard growth measurements. We are going to measure your weight, height, plot you out on our charts with a BMI (body mass index) included.

  We're going to talk very extensively, I think, about diet. How extensively depends on how those growth charts look. We're always going to do some development screening which at school-age is talking about social skills, school performance, sports interactions, and then we're always going to cover any past medical history topics so that anybody has problems with asthma, diabetes, any significant history, we are going to make sure that we have the right plan in place as you move forward.

  What happens at a sports physical?

  Sports physicals are going to be very similar to your annual physical. They really focus more heavily on the sporting activities once you hit junior high, so seventh grade through senior year in high school.

  At that point you're focusing, in addition, to everything we talked about for the well child visit, your focusing on any history of concussions, concussion management and prevention. You're looking for any orthopaedic injuries and specifically, cardiac or pulmonary diseases.

  When should my child's physical be scheduled?

  We schedule them here starting late March and we;'ll go all through April, May, June, July running them into August and of course, for some of the people that procrastinate a little bit, we're hitting them even into September.

  Those visits fill up fast so the earlier in the summer you do it the better.​​