A healthcare proxy is a document that names someone to make medical decisions for you when you cannot speak for yourself. Georgia’s version of this document is called an Advance Directive for Health Care, and the person being authorized is called the health care agent. Your college student needs this proxy when they turn 18. Without it, a hospital may not be required to tell you anything, despite you being a parent.
A Common Scenario: When a College-Goer Doesn’t Have a Healthcare Proxy
Once your child turns 18, most things may not feel different, but legally, everything changes. At 18, your son or daughter legally becomes an adult. Doctors answer to them, not to you. Their medical records belong to them. Their grades belong to them. Their bank account belongs to them. You may still be paying tuition and healthcare, but that does not give you legal authority.
Many parents find this out in the worst possible way. A phone call at 2 a.m. A hospital in another county. A nurse who will not say more than “he was brought in.” In such situations, the parent is extremely limited in accessing information and making urgent decisions about their child’s medical care.
Georgia’s “Healthcare Proxy”: Advanced Directive for Health Care
Though the term “healthcare proxy” is used in a handful of other states, Georgia has its own version. The state used to have two separate forms acting as a healthcare proxy: a living will and a durable power of attorney for health care. In 2007, the General Assembly combined them into one form, which is now the Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care. This is encapsulated in Georgia Code (OCGA) section 31-32-4.
This matters more than it sounds. If your student downloads a “healthcare proxy” form off the internet and signs it, a Georgia hospital may not know what to do with it. Use the right form. The Georgia Division of Aging Services publishes the official version for free.
The advance directive has four parts:
- Part One: Names a health care agent.
- Part Two: States treatment preferences for a terminal condition or permanent unconsciousness.
- Part Three: Nominates a guardian, if a court ever appoints one.
- Part Four: Signatures. This part is required.
Why College-Goers, Specifically, Need a Healthcare Proxy
Car crashes hit this age group harder than any other. Emergency department visit rates for motor vehicle crash injuries peak at 19.1 visits per 1,000 people among 15 to 24 year olds, then fall steadily with age, according to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics.
Assaults follow the same curve. Adults ages 18 to 24 visit the emergency room for assault injuries at a rate of 9.2 per 1,000 per year, the highest of any adult group, per the CDC National Center for Health Statistics.
Then there is alcohol. About 1,519 college students ages 18 to 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including car crashes. Another 696,000 are assaulted by a student who has been drinking. Those estimates come from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Mental health belongs in this conversation, too. The Healthy Minds Study surveyed more than 84,000 students across 135 schools. In 2025, 37% reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms, 32% reported moderate to severe anxiety, and 11% reported suicidal ideation. Psychiatric admissions are exactly the situation where a parent gets stonewalled at the front desk.
None of this means your kid is in danger. It means the odds of a hospital visit sometime in four years are not small. Preparing the legal papers only takes an afternoon.
“But I’m the Parent. Can’t I Just Consent?”
Sometimes. This is where the online advice gets sloppy and where Georgia law is genuinely different from most states.
OCGA 31-9-2 lists who may consent to medical treatment when a patient cannot. There is a ranked order. A named health care agent comes first. Then a spouse. Then, if nobody above is available, a specific list kicks in: adult child, then parent, then sibling, then grandparent, and so on.
So yes, a Georgia parent can sometimes consent for an adult child. Here is why you should not rely on it:
- It only applies if a doctor first documents that your child cannot decide for themselves. The statute requires a physician to personally examine the patient and write in the chart that the adult lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make responsible medical decisions. Until that happens, you are outside the statute.
- It does not give you the records. Consent authority and medical records access are two different things. A parent asking the billing department for an itemized statement is not making a treatment decision.
- It does not travel. For example, your daughter at the University of Alabama is governed by Alabama law, not Georgia Code 31-9-2.
- It puts strangers in charge of the order. If your student is married, the spouse comes before you. If you and your co-parent disagree, the statute does not break the tie.
A signed advance directive skips all of it. Your student names you. You are first in line. There is no argument at the nurse’s station.
The Three Documents Every Georgia College Student Should Sign
1. Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care
This document names a health care agent who can consent to treatment, refuse treatment, admit or discharge your student from a hospital, and access medical records under HIPAA.
It’s also helpful to name a backup agent. If you travel for work, or if you are the one in the car with them, your student needs a second name on the form.
A few limits are built into Georgia law. A doctor directly involved in your child’s care cannot serve as an agent. An agent cannot authorize sterilization, psychosurgery, or involuntary commitment for mental illness or addiction. A court can remove an agent who is not acting properly.
2. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Authorization
Under federal law, a health care agent is treated as the patient’s “personal representative” and gets the same access to protected health information the patient would have. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explains that a personal representative stands in the shoes of the patient.
While a Georgia advance directive covers this, a standalone HIPAA authorization is still worth having. It works when your student is conscious and competent, but you need to call the insurance company, sort out a bill, or talk to a physician about a diagnosis. Front desk staff also recognize a HIPAA form instantly. They may not always recognize an advance directive.
3. Georgia Financial Power of Attorney
Situations can arise where financial authority is urgently needed: Your student is in a hospital bed for three weeks. Rent is due. Tuition payment failed. A car sits in an impound lot. Their bank will not talk to you.
Georgia’s financial power of attorney lives in a different chapter entirely, the Georgia Power of Attorney Act, OCGA section 10-6B-70. The statutory form was updated most recently in 2024.
This form says plainly that a financial power of attorney does not authorize the agent to make health care decisions. That is why you need both a healthcare directive and financial power of attorney. One handles the doctor. The other handles the bank.
Georgia powers of attorney are durable by default. They keep working if your student becomes incapacitated, unless the document says otherwise.
How to Sign These Correctly in Georgia
The signing rules are different for each document. Getting them backwards is the most common mistake we see.
- Advance directive. Under OCGA 31-32-5, the signer must be 18 or emancipated and of sound mind. Two witnesses, each 18 or older, must sign. The witnesses do not have to be present at the same time. Neither witness can be someone who will knowingly inherit from the student or gain financially from their death. Neither can be directly involved in the student’s health care. Notarization is not required.
- Financial power of attorney. Under OCGA 10-6B-5, the student signs, one witness attests, and a notary attests. The witness and the notary must be two different people. Neither can be the named agent. All of them must be in each other’s presence at signing. Notarization is required.
A practical note: roommates make fine witnesses for the advance directive. They inherit nothing, and they are not treating anyone.
What If Your Student Goes to School Out of State?
Georgia’s statute is generous. OCGA 31-32-5 says a document executed in another state and valid where it was signed is treated as an advance directive that complies with Georgia law. Georgia recognizes other states’ paperwork.
Going the other direction is less certain. Most states honor an out-of-state directive. Not all of them handle it the same way, and a hospital’s legal department may pause over an unfamiliar form.
It’s practical for a Georgia student heading to Tuscaloosa, Chapel Hill, or Nashville to sign the Georgia advance directive, then sign that state’s form, too. There is no rule against having both. Save a photo of each in your student’s phone, in your phone, and in a shared cloud folder. A copy carries the same legal weight as the original under Georgia law.
What About FERPA?
Different law, same surprise. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) moves the control of education records from parents to the student the moment the student enrolls in college, at any age. The U.S. Department of Education calls that student an “eligible student.”
There is an important exception. If you claim your student as a dependent for federal tax purposes, the school may release education records to you without consent under the Code of Federal Regulations title 34 section 99.31(a)(8). Note the word “may.” It is permission, not a requirement, and many schools decline.
Colleges also have a separate option to notify parents about alcohol or controlled substance violations by students under 21.
The clean fix is a signed FERPA release. Most schools post their own form. Have your student sign it during orientation week, before the first crisis, not during it.
Five Mistakes We See Every August
- Signing a form from the wrong state. A New York healthcare proxy template, for instance, is not a Georgia advance directive.
- Naming one agent and no backup. Parents get sick. Parents travel. For situations like these, name a secondary healthcare agent for your student.
- Using the wrong witnesses. A sibling who would inherit cannot witness the advance directive.
- Signing the advance directive and stopping there. Health decisions and financial decisions require separate documents.
- Filing it in a drawer. A document nobody can find at midnight is not a document. Give copies to the health care agent, keep a copy at home, and store a scan where you can reach it from a phone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Georgia advance directive need to be notarized?
No. Two qualified witnesses are required. Notarization is optional, though some families add a notary acknowledgment because it can help if the document is ever questioned. The financial power of attorney is different and does require a notary.
Can my 18-year-old name me as their health care agent?
Yes, and this is the most common choice. Any competent adult can serve, with one exception: a physician or health care provider directly involved in the student’s care cannot be the agent.
When does the advance directive take effect?
Unless your student writes on a different date, it takes effect the moment they sign it. It applies only when the student is unable or chooses not to make and communicate their own health care decisions. Signing it does not hand over control while your student is awake and talking.
Can my student revoke it later?
Yes, at any time. Georgia allows revocation by destroying the document, by signing a written revocation, or by saying so out loud with a witness present. A verbal revocation takes effect once it reaches the attending physician. Signing a new advance directive replaces the old one.
What if my student is married?
Under OCGA 31-9-2, a spouse outranks a parent when no health care agent has been named. A later divorce automatically revokes a spouse’s designation as health care agent under the Georgia statutory form.
My student is 17 and starting college early. Can they sign?
Not unless they are legally emancipated. Georgia requires the signer to be 18 or emancipated. Until then, you retain parental authority. Put the signing on the calendar for their 18th birthday.
How much does this cost?
Far less than most parents assume. The advance directive form is free from the state. You can, however, hire an attorney for valuable assistance. They can make sure the right people are named, the signing formalities are met, the financial power of attorney matches your family’s situation, and nothing conflicts with your own estate plan.
Talk to a Top-Rated Georgia Estate Planning Attorney
Life Well Lived Law Group is a top-rated Georgia wills, trusts, and estate planning firm. Advance directives for college students are exactly the kind of work we do every summer before move-in day.
Attorney Sharon Sweat Jackson has been admitted to the State Bar of Georgia since 2005. She earned her Juris Doctor from Georgia State University and is admitted to practice before the Superior and State Courts of Georgia, the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Georgia, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Her recognition reflects two decades of peer and client review:
- Named a Super Lawyer, a distinction reserved for roughly the top 5% of attorneys each year
- Selected to The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and The National Advocates Top 100, both invitation-only
- 10.0 Superb rating on Avvo, the independent attorney review site
- Martindale-Hubbell Client Champion Gold Award, based directly on client feedback
- Legal Elite, Georgia Trend Magazine, nominated by legal peers.
Our office sits at 175 Langley Drive, Suite A4, in Lawrenceville, and we serve families throughout Gwinnett County and metro Atlanta.
An advance directive, a HIPAA release, and a financial power of attorney take one appointment. Freshman move-in only happens once.
Call Life Well Lived Law Group at (678) 272-5785 to schedule a consultation before your student leaves for college.
This article provides general information about Georgia law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not make an attorney-client relationship. Each family’s situation is unique. Please speak with our licensed Georgia attorney about your specific circumstances.
