A practical checklist of every document families of children with autism or ADHD should keep—evaluations, IEPs, therapy records, insurance authorizations, and medical records—and how to organize them.
The school calls and asks for a copy of your child's most recent evaluation. Your new occupational therapist (OT) wants the psychoeducational report from two years ago. You are sitting in an individualized education program (IEP) meeting and someone references a goal from the previous plan that you cannot locate. You know the document exists—somewhere—but between the email attachments, the paper folder in the filing cabinet, and the PDF you saved to your desktop eighteen months ago, finding it in the moment is its own emergency.
If you have a child with autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you are generating more paperwork than most families ever see: evaluations, therapy reports, school plans, insurance correspondence, medication records. The volume is not going to decrease. The question is whether you have a system—or whether you are perpetually reconstructing one from scattered pieces.
This checklist is the system. Use it to audit what you have, identify what you are missing, and organize everything in one place going forward.
These are the foundational documents. Everything else in your child's care history references back to them.
Keep every evaluation report your child has received—neuropsychological evaluations, psychoeducational assessments, developmental pediatrician reports, speech-language evaluations, and occupational therapy evaluations. Keep the full report, not just the summary page. When a new provider asks about your child's history, the full report tells a story that a diagnosis code alone cannot.
Also keep the written diagnosis letter or confirmation if your evaluator provided one separately from the full report. Some insurance authorizations and school eligibility processes ask for this specifically.
School records are among the most frequently needed and most frequently misplaced documents in a family's history.
Keep every IEP your child has had, including prior years. Progress reports generated under each IEP belong here too—they document whether the school met its commitments. Keep any 504 plans, meeting notes you took yourself, and correspondence with the school about your child's needs. If you have ever submitted a written request for evaluation or services, keep a copy of that letter and the school's response.
Eligibility determination documents—the school's formal finding of whether your child qualifies for special education services—belong here as well. These are distinct from the IEP itself and sometimes needed separately.
Keep intake paperwork and initial goal plans from every provider your child has worked with, including providers who are no longer part of the care team. Progress notes and discharge summaries from former therapists can be valuable context for new ones.
For current providers, keep the most recent goal update or treatment plan. If your child's applied behavior analysis (ABA) provider issues quarterly progress reports, file each one. The longitudinal picture—where your child was six months ago versus today—is the document you will want when you are trying to assess whether therapy is working or making the case to insurance for continued services.
This category saves the most time and stress when things go wrong.
Keep every prior authorization approval you have received for therapy services, along with the dates it covers and the number of approved sessions or hours. Keep explanation of benefits (EOB) statements for any therapy claims, especially ones that were denied and later appealed. If you have ever written an appeal letter or submitted supporting documentation to your insurer, keep copies of everything sent and received.
Knowing what was authorized, when, and under what terms is the fastest way to resolve a billing dispute or re-authorization gap.
Keep your child's most recent well-visit records and any specialist notes relevant to their diagnosis—developmental pediatrician visits, psychiatry notes if your child is on medication, any relevant genetic testing results. Medication records, including dosage history and any documented side effects or titration notes, belong here too.
If your documents are currently scattered across email, paper, and various devices, do not try to organize everything at once. Start with the two categories that get requested most often: evaluation reports and the current IEP. Get those in one place first. Add the rest over time as you locate or receive documents.
Going forward, make it a habit to file every new document the week you receive it. The system only works if feeding it is easy.
Create a free What's Next Health account and start uploading to your document vault today. Your evaluation reports, IEPs, and therapy records are stored securely in one place—accessible from any device, searchable, and organized by category. If you are heading into an IEP meeting and want to know how to use your documents effectively in that room, the IEP meeting preparation guide covers exactly that. For a broader look at coordinating care across multiple providers, building your child's care team is the complete guide.
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