The physical exam can be completed out of state; we printed out the form and had our children’s pediatrican fill it out.   In regards to the immunization record, Florida requires that all immunizations be placed on a blue form, Form DH 680.  Only the health department and Florida physicians can do this; it is not a downloadable form. Please click here for more information.

We opted to have ours completed at the Health Department.  There is a temporary location in Clermont where we were able to drop off the vaccination records last week, and then pick them up this morning, for a small fee of ten dollars per record completed.  We also had the option of driving to Eustis (about a 35 minute drive one-way) and receiving the record the same day.  Click here for the Lake County Health Department website.

Our children are attending the schools in the district in which they reside.  To find out where your address lies, click here for address look-up/boundary zones information.  This link lists a directory of all the schools in Lake County, and provides names, addresses, phone numbers and website information.  Registration forms may be available online; ours were but there are some schools that do not have them available as a download.  There is a school choice option that allows you to place your children in schools outside of your assigned district, but as our children are attending an “A” rated school we felt it was not necessary to transfer out.  It is quite an unknown variable, sending your children to schools you know little about, and it could be that the school you decide to use school-choice for is not as good as the school your children would normally attend.  Without knowing the area, you are taking a calculated risk.

For disabled students and new this year for students with a 504 plan is the McKay Scholarship, a tuition voucher that can pay tuition for private schools if parents wish to opt out of public schooling.  It may be an option we decide to utilize for our son in the future, but we’ve heard positive comments about the high school he is on track to attend, so we will wait and see; we have a couple of years before we need to make that decision.

Our children do not need to wear uniforms to school, but there are some schools in Lake County that do require them.   We receive school updates from the Orlando-Sentinel specific to our area, and it appears to be on track that uniforms may be required county-wide next year.

To register our children, we brought in the registration forms and supporting documents.  It will save some time if you provide a photocopy of the documents; we did not need to show the originals.   We have a list of general supplies that are needed for school, but we have orientation on Thursday and will receive the teacher’s lists then. It’s a little strange not to be shopping for school until the weekend before, as normally in Wisconsin everything is bought in July, and it’s really strange for them to be starting in August (normally after Labor Day), but they’ll really enjoying having an extended winter vacation when they will actually be able to go out and enjoy the weather!