What to bring to an ADHD evaluation
The documents and information to gather before an ADHD evaluation — school and work records, rating scales, medication lists and insurance details — and what to ask before the first session.
Updated
A good evaluation does not depend on you bringing a folder full of papers — the clinician gathers most of the evidence themselves — but the records you bring make the assessment faster, cheaper and more certain. The single most useful rule is: bring evidence from ordinary life that describes how the person functions, not a self-made list of symptoms.
For children and teens, the highest-value items are school records: report cards and teacher comments from every year you can find, standardized test scores, any individualized education plan (IEP) or 504 plan, and letters from teachers if they exist. Old report cards matter because they were written before anyone was looking for ADHD, which makes them some of the most honest historical evidence you will ever have. Bring a list of medications past and present, including supplements, because stimulants and some other medicines change attention and can mimic or mask symptoms. Bring developmental and health history if you have it, and the names and staff roles of any previous evaluations or therapists.
For adults, gather work performance reviews or written feedback if you can get them, old report cards if your parents kept any, and a list of jobs, schools and how long you stayed at each. An adult evaluation leans on the pattern of functioning across contexts, so a short written history from a partner, parent or close colleague is genuinely useful. Bring your current medications and any past diagnoses or evaluations, including an old childhood diagnosis if one exists.
For everyone: bring a photo ID and your insurance card, the name and contact details of your primary care provider, and the name of any school or employer that will need a report, because the evaluator may tailor the assessment to that institution's requirements. Note the date and time of your last visit to any mental-health professional, if any.
Before the first session, ask the clinic what to submit early. Most practices send rating scales and questionnaires before the visit — for children, often one for each parent and one for a teacher. Return those promptly and in full; a missing teacher form is the most common reason an evaluation schedule stretches by weeks. If the practice uses a patient portal, set up your login and confirm how records are shared.
Bring one more thing: your own list of questions. If the evaluation is for school or workplace accommodations, ask on the first call whether the report will meet that specific process, how long the report takes, and whether the evaluator discusses findings with the institution. If you plan to compare providers after the evaluation, ask for a copy of the raw data with the report.
Use the prep checklist tool on this site to turn this guide into a printable checklist: it asks who the evaluation is for and builds the list of documents and questions from there. If a record does not exist, do not worry; tell the clinician what you could not find. Missing records slow an evaluation; they do not stop one.