Every person gets one health story, and one private Family Stork email address every clinic already knows how to use. The moving truck crosses state lines. The health records don't follow unless you move them.
September 12, 2026 · Updated regularly
When your family moves to a new state, your child's health records stay exactly where they were created — at the old pediatrician's office, the old hospital system's patient portal, the old state's immunization registry. No forwarding address. No automatic transfer. The new pediatrician in your new city starts with a blank chart.
The good news: you have a legal right to your child's records, and most offices will send them. The challenge is that you have to request each piece separately, from every provider your child has ever seen — and then somehow present all of it at enrollment and at the first appointment.
Start 4–6 weeks before your move date. Contact each of these separately:
Most practices respond in 1–4 weeks. Starting late means arriving in the new state without records at enrollment.
This is the document every new school district will ask for first. Your options:
Note: Your old state's immunization registry record does not automatically transfer to the new state's registry. The new pediatrician who administers future vaccines will enroll your child in the new state's IIS. More on how immunization records work across state lines.
Patient portals like MyChart often limit access once the provider relationship ends. Some deactivate inactive accounts. Some restrict records access when you're no longer a covered patient in that health system. Before you move:
Don't assume portal access will persist after the move. It might — but plan as if it won't.
In competitive metro areas, pediatric practices fill quickly. Start the search before you move. When you contact the new practice:
Full guide: switching pediatricians and transferring health records.
Every state has its own required immunization schedule for school enrollment. The vaccines required in your old state may not match what the new state requires — and vice versa. Some states require additional documentation (signed physician forms, not just a vaccine record printout). Check the new state's requirements before your child's first day:
For all 50 states, see our full guide to transferring medical records when moving states.
Most families discover the records problem at exactly the wrong moment — sitting in a new pediatrician's waiting room, filling out the intake paperwork from memory. "Allergic to penicillin — or was that amoxicillin? The 18-month MMR was at the old pediatrician, I think — or was it the 15-month visit?"
The records exist. They're in the old pediatrician's EHR. They're in the patient portal you may no longer be able to access. They're in the state immunization registry you can't easily query. They're in the paper immunization card in the box that went in the moving truck.
The problem isn't that the records are gone. The problem is that they were never in one place to begin with.
Family Stork gives every person one private @familystork email address. When any clinic — old or new — sends a visit summary, it goes to that address. The record files itself into your child's timeline automatically.
When you move states, the address comes with you. The old pediatrician's final visit summary, the first visit with the new pediatrician three months later, the specialist referral in the new city — they all go to the same place. The timeline doesn't reset when you cross a state line.
When school enrollment asks for immunization records, you have them. When the new pediatrician needs the allergy history, you pull it up. When your child asks years later what happened at that ER visit when they were four, the answer is in their timeline.
No. Medical records stay with the providers who created them. When you move, you need to request records from each provider individually — old pediatrician, specialists, hospitals, and urgent care facilities your child visited. There is no automatic interstate transfer system for pediatric medical records. You must initiate each request.
Most providers respond to records requests within 1–4 weeks. Some practices have faster turnaround; some are slower. Start the request process 4–6 weeks before your move date so records arrive before your child's first appointment with the new pediatrician and before school enrollment deadlines.
Not automatically. Each state maintains its own immunization information system (IIS), and they do not automatically share records with each other. When the new pediatrician administers future vaccines, they'll enroll your child in the new state's IIS. For enrollment purposes, bring official paper immunization records from the old pediatrician — the new state's registry won't have history from the old state.
Most states require: official immunization records (specific to each state's required vaccine list), a recent physical exam form (many states require it within the past 12 months), and in some cases, proof of vision and hearing screenings. Requirements vary by state. Check the specific requirements for your destination state — each state's school enrollment checklist in our guide covers exact form names and deadlines.
Yes. Family Stork gives your child one private @familystork email address. When any clinic — old or new — sends a visit summary, it files automatically into your child's health timeline. When you move states, the address stays the same. The old records, the new records, and every clinic in between all build the same timeline. You don't start over. $99/year.
$99 per year — or about $10 a month. One timeline per person, from their first heartbeat and beyond.
Your family moves. The @familystork address stays the same. Old pediatrician, new pediatrician, specialists in two states — they all send to the same place. The record keeps building. $99/year.
Start your child's record — free