What Pennsylvania Parents of New Jersey and New York College Students Need to Know
If you live in Milford, Matamoras, or anywhere along the Pike County border, there's a good chance your college-bound senior is heading somewhere within a two-hour drive — Rutgers, NYU, Stevens, Marist, Iona, Montclair State, Stockton, Seton Hall. Geographically convenient. Legally complicated.
Most parents don't realize that the state where their child goes to school can affect whether they have legal authority in a medical emergency. Here's what you need to know before move-in day.
Your Pennsylvania Healthcare Proxy Should Work — But "Should" Is Doing a Lot of Work
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York all recognize healthcare powers of attorney executed in other states, generally speaking. A properly drafted Pennsylvania healthcare proxy will usually be honored at a hospital in New Brunswick or Manhattan.
But hospitals are cautious institutions. When a parent walks into an emergency room in another state waving a document from somewhere else, the question that immediately gets asked is whether the document was executed correctly under that state's standards. The faster the answer is yes, the faster you get through the door.
A few practical points that matter:
Witness and notary requirements differ. Pennsylvania requires two witnesses for a healthcare proxy. New York requires two witnesses but has specific rules about who can serve. New Jersey allows either two witnesses or a notary. A document that satisfies all three states' requirements at once is the safest bet — and that's how we draft them.
HIPAA authorization is federal, not state. This is the good news. HIPAA is a federal privacy law, so authorization signed in Pennsylvania works in every state. As long as your child's healthcare proxy includes a clear HIPAA release, the medical information piece travels cleanly.
State-specific advance directive forms are NOT the same as a healthcare proxy. New York has a "Health Care Proxy" form. New Jersey has an "Advance Directive for Health Care." These are state forms designed for residents of those states. Your Pennsylvania-resident child does not need to fill out a New York form to be protected at a New York hospital — but the document they do have needs to be drafted with cross-state recognition in mind.
What to Pack Alongside the Twin XL Sheets
Once your child has signed a healthcare proxy, there are a few practical steps that turn the document from a piece of paper into something a hospital can actually act on:
Give your child a copy to keep with their important documents at school. A pinned email, a folder in their phone's Files app, or a scanned PDF saved to their cloud storage all work. The original stays at home.
Provide a copy to their primary care doctor and, if they have one at school, the campus health center. Many universities now ask for advance directives as part of their student health intake.
Keep a copy in your own files and know where it is. If you're driving to the hospital at 2 AM, you don't want to be hunting for the document.
Consider a digital service like a wallet card or an app that lets first responders access the document quickly. This is optional but increasingly popular.
The College Itself May Need a Separate Authorization
Here's something most parents miss entirely: even with a healthcare proxy, the college's student health center, dean of students, and academic offices are governed by a different federal law called FERPA. FERPA protects educational records, and that includes things like academic standing, disciplinary issues, and sometimes campus health center visits.
If you want full visibility into your child's college life — which we generally recommend, especially in the first year — you'll want a FERPA waiver in addition to the healthcare proxy. Most universities have their own FERPA waiver form on their website. It's a separate document, often a single page, and your child fills it out directly with the school.
The combination of a healthcare proxy plus a FERPA waiver gets parents most of the way to where they want to be: medical access through the proxy, academic and campus access through FERPA.
What About a Financial Power of Attorney?
Some families also have their college-bound child sign a limited financial power of attorney. This authorizes a parent to handle banking issues, deal with the bursar's office, sign a lease on an off-campus apartment, or manage a tax filing if the student is unavailable.
It's not always necessary — many 18-year-olds can handle these things on their own with a phone call — but for students studying abroad, in intensive programs, or simply far from home, it's a useful belt-and-suspenders addition.
The Bottom Line for Tri-State Parents
If your child is going to college in New Jersey or New York with a Pennsylvania driver's license still in their wallet, you are not in legal limbo — but you are in a place where preparation matters more than it would for a student staying in-state. A properly drafted PA healthcare proxy with cross-state language, a HIPAA authorization, a FERPA waiver from the school, and (optionally) a limited financial power of attorney will cover the vast majority of situations a worried parent can imagine.
The whole package can be assembled in a single fifteen-minute appointment.
Helping families across Pike County PA, Sussex County NJ, and Orange County NY
Jacobs, Wilson & Onofry has been preparing estate planning documents for tri-state families for years. Whether your graduating senior is heading to Rutgers, NYU, ESU, or anywhere in between, we can prepare a healthcare proxy designed to be recognized across state lines.
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DVHS graduating seniors qualify for a free Pennsylvania Healthcare Power of Attorney through our community program. Details at jwolawyers.com/dvhs-proxy.