The back-to-school checklist for parents

Four weeks out

The boring, deadline-driven items go first, because they're the ones with real consequences if they're late.

• Check your school's requirements. Every school and district has its own forms, immunization records and physical requirements; find the list on the school's site or from the office and put each deadline on the calendar now. Book any appointments the school requires while slots are still open.
• Find the supply list and the dress code or uniform rules, and check what from last year still works before buying.
• Register for before- and after-school care, buses and activities that fill up early, and note the first days for each.
• Subscribe to the school's calendar (and the team's) so the fixed dates arrive on their own; our school emails guide shows how.
• Set up the carpool or drop-off plan with the other families involved, and write down who drives which days.

Two weeks out

• Fill out the school forms and emergency contacts, and submit anything due before day one.
• Check sizes; buy shoes and uniforms. Feet grow over a summer. Try everything on, not just the new things.
• Buy the supply list, in one trip, from the list. Keep the receipt for the items the teacher turns out not to need.
• Plan lunches. Decide school lunch versus packed, and if packed, pick five lunches the kid will actually eat and buy the containers that make them easy.
• Sort out the devices: the school's laptop agreement, the family's screen rules for the school year, where devices charge at night (not the bedroom).

The week before

This is the week for the body clock and the routine. The Child Mind Institute's guidance on getting back into the school routine points out that kids are used to sleeping and waking later in summer, and recommends discussing and planning the morning routine before the school year starts, so kids know what it will look like under time pressure, and having a nighttime schedule with clear steps and praise for each one.

• Move bedtimes and wake-ups earlier, a bit each day, until you reach school-night times a few days before the first day. For how much sleep each age needs, see our routines guide.
• Walk through the morning routine out loud or with a picture chart: wake, dress, breakfast, teeth, shoes, bag. Do a practice run on a weekday morning, including leaving the house on time.
• Label everything: lunch boxes, water bottles, jackets, every single item of the supply list the teacher asked you to label.
• Set up the homework spot: a table, a lamp, the supplies, and an agreed time. The Child Mind Institute suggests starting homework right after school, with a snack, and plenty of positive feedback for effort.
• Visit the school if it's new, meet the teacher if there's a chance, and let a nervous kid know nerves are normal.
• Plan lunches for the first week and do the grocery run for them.

The night before and day one

• Lay out clothes, pack the bag, make the lunch and put the bag by the door. The morning should contain nothing that could have happened tonight.
• Confirm the plan out loud: who's driving, what time you leave, who's picking up, where. Both parents and the kid should be able to repeat it.
• Set alarms with a 10-minute buffer, and charge whatever needs charging.
• Day one: breakfast, the first-day photo on the porch, leave on time, and resist the urge to pile on. Ask one question at pickup ("what was the best part?") rather than ten.

The first weeks

The first couple of weeks bring a flood of paper and email. Keep the routine going: a 10-minute weekly pass through school email to pull dates onto the family calendar, forms signed the night they come home, and the morning and bedtime routines held even when it's tempting to let them slide on a Friday. Expect tiredness and some grumpiness in week two, when the novelty wears off and the sleep debt catches up; an earlier bedtime fixes more than a talk does. Put the first parent night, picture day and any early-release days on the calendar as soon as they're announced, in the kid's color.

Use the Back to school template

HouseChief's projects include a Back to school template that turns this checklist into dated to-dos. Pick the template, set the first day of school as the goal date, and each step gets a date counted back from it: update shots and physicals if needed three weeks out, check sizes and buy shoes and uniforms two weeks out, fill out school forms and emergency contacts two weeks out, buy the supply list 10 days out, move bedtimes earlier a week out, set up the carpool plan five days out, label everything three days out, plan lunches for the first week two days out, and first-day photos on the day. Give each to-do a parent as its owner and a reminder, and edit or add steps for your school's own list.

The rest of the year runs on two habits: the school's calendar subscribed into the family calendar, and school emails forwarded to your family's HouseChief address, so dates and to-dos land in your Inbox to approve. Routines for mornings and bedtimes are daily chores the kids tick on the kitchen tablet.