How to Create and Send a Child Intake Form in SimplePractice

To create and send a child intake form in SimplePractice, set up the client as a minor with the parent listed as a contact, choose one of the platform’s pre-built pediatric templates (or build your own), activate it in your shareable documents, and send it from the child’s Overview page through the encrypted client portal. The parent receives an email link, completes the forms on any device, and signs electronically. Everything happens inside the same dashboard.

Set Up the Minor Client Profile First

Paperwork can’t go anywhere until there’s a client record to attach it to. When you add the new client, select Minor as the client type. SimplePractice then asks for the parent or guardian’s information in the Contact section: legal first and last name, email, phone, relationship to the child, and whether that contact handles billing.¹

Put the parent’s email under the contact profile, not on the minor’s own profile. That email is what triggers client portal access and intake delivery. If you enter the parent’s address under the minor by mistake, SimplePractice will flag the conflict and you’ll need to clear it from the minor’s Client Portal settings before you can add the parent as a contact. Only give the minor a separate email if they actually have one.¹

For separated or divorced parents, click + Contact to add each guardian with their own name, email, phone, and relationship. You can also link one contact to multiple minor profiles, which helps when you treat siblings.¹

Pick a Pre-Built Child Intake Template

Go to Settings > Documentation > Template Library to see what’s already built.² The pediatric-oriented options include:

ABA Child Intake Form, for applied behavior analysis providers
Occupational Therapy Child Intake Form, covering motor and sensory development
Speech Language Child Intake Form, focused on communication milestones and feeding history
Pediatric CBIT Intake Form, for tic disorder programs
Adolescent Intake Questionnaire, a broader teen template
Psychiatrist / PMHNP Parent Intake, for parent-reported psychiatric and medication history

If nothing fits, click Build new template and choose Intake document as the type.² Either way, the template builder lets you add, remove, and rearrange sections.³

What the Form Should Collect

A useful child intake form gathers everything you’d otherwise burn session time collecting. The exact sections depend on your discipline, but most child forms share a common spine:

Patient demographics: legal name, date of birth, age, gender, race, and address
Parent and guardian contacts, plus legal custody, physical custody, and parenting-time schedule when parents are separated
Presenting problem: what prompted the referral, when the parent noticed the concern, and how it affects functioning at home, school, and socially
Behavioral concerns checklist: depression, anxiety, mood, attention, eating, trauma, self-harm, suicidal ideation
Mental health history: prior clinicians, hospitalizations, and medications with dosages and responses
Developmental history: language, motor milestones, toilet training, regression
School information: current school, grade, typical grades, strengths and weaknesses, IEP or 504 plans
Family and social history: household members, relationships, discipline methods, involvement with CPS or the juvenile justice system
Insurance and billing: policy holder, carrier, group and member IDs, authorization numbers
Emergency contacts other than the primary guardian

The custody fields carry real weight. When parents are separated, you need to know which adult holds legal authority to consent to treatment. Under HIPAA, a parent with authority to make healthcare decisions for an unemancipated minor is generally the child’s personal representative and can access the records.⁴ If a court order restricts one parent’s decision-making rights, ask for the decree and keep a copy in the file.

Customize and Activate the Template

After choosing a template, tailor it. Add questions specific to your specialty, drag sections into the order that makes sense, and delete what doesn’t apply. A speech-language pathologist probably doesn’t need the behavioral checklist; an ABA provider may not need school grades.

Think about the parent filling this out on a phone. A form that runs fifteen pages will sit half-finished in the portal for days. Put the urgent material first: consent, emergency contacts, custody status, presenting concerns. Push background questions toward the end, and cut anything that can wait for the first session.

When the layout is done, activate it. Open your shareable documents settings and check the box next to the template name.² Skip this and the form won’t appear when you try to send it, which is the most common reason a template seems to have vanished.

Send the Intake to the Parent

Open the child’s Overview page and click Share in the top right. Check every document you want the parent to receive, then move through Continue to Email > Continue to Review > Share & Send Now.⁵

The parent gets an email linking to the client portal. If they didn’t already have portal access, sharing the intake creates it automatically.⁵ SimplePractice describes the portal as end-to-end encrypted and HITRUST certified.⁶ The parent completes each field and signs electronically from any device.

If a specific form doesn’t show up in the Share dialog, it hasn’t been activated. Return to Settings > Documentation > Template Library and check the box for that template.²

Review What the Parent Sent Back

When the parent finishes, you get an email notification. Open the child’s Overview page and click the Files tab. Each document shows a status of Completed or Pending, along with the date shared and when the parent last viewed or signed it.⁵

Click any Completed file to read the responses. Check for gaps before the first appointment: blank custody fields, missing insurance information, unanswered safety questions about self-harm or abuse history. If something is incomplete, message the parent through the secure portal and ask them to update the form.

Consent Rules Worth Knowing Before You Build

HIPAA treats most parents as the personal representative of their unemancipated minor child, which is why the parent signs your intake in the first place. Whether a specific parent qualifies depends partly on state law.⁴ The federal rule at 45 CFR 164.502(g)(3) identifies three situations where a parent is not the personal representative:

The minor consents to the care independently and no other consent is required by law
The minor receives treatment at the direction of a court or a court-appointed individual
The parent has agreed that the child and provider may have a confidential relationship

These exceptions come directly from the regulation.⁷ They matter most for adolescents, because many states let minors above a certain age consent to outpatient mental health counseling on their own. When that applies, portions of the record may be off-limits to the parent. Check your state’s consent laws before finalizing the form so you know who signs which sections. For substance use disorder records, 42 CFR Part 2 adds separate federal protections that require specific written consent for disclosure.

A parent’s electronic signature carries the same legal weight as a wet signature under the federal ESIGN Act, provided the platform authenticates the signer, protects document integrity, keeps an audit trail, and encrypts protected health information. SimplePractice describes its intake platform as HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST certified, with encryption applied throughout.⁸ A parent who prefers not to sign electronically must be offered a paper alternative; under ESIGN and UETA, no one can be forced to transact electronically.

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SimplePractice Support. Adding Minor Clients
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SimplePractice Support. Managing Intake Forms
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SimplePractice Support. Using Pre-Built Templates and Your Template Library
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Department of Health & Human Services. The HIPAA Privacy Rule and Parental Access to Minor Children’s Medical Records
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SimplePractice Support. Sending Intake Forms and Documents to Clients
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SimplePractice. HIPAA-Compliant Client Portal Software
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eCFR. 45 CFR 164.502
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SimplePractice. Paperless Intakes – Lower Admin Time