Your kid is excited. They’re packing the bag, picking the cabin assignment, telling you which friend they hope to bunk with. That excitement is the point. Don’t take it from them.

Your job is different. Your job is the part of camp safety they shouldn’t have to think about.

This is the list of questions to ask the camp before you sign the check. None of them require your kid to know you’re asking. They focus on the fun. You focus on keeping them safe.

Background checks. The basic floor.

Every adult on staff should have a current background check. Not “we run background checks.” Current, this season, on file. Ask specifically.

Are background checks run on every adult on staff every year, or only at hire?

Some camps check at hire and never again. A counselor who has worked there four summers has not been re-checked since 2022. That’s a gap. Camps that re-check annually are the floor.

For overnight camps, ask whether the check covers the FBI fingerprint database, not just state-level checks. State-level only is incomplete. The FBI database catches movement across state lines.

Mandatory reporter training

Every adult on staff should be a mandatory reporter, trained, and required to escalate. Ask:

What’s your protocol when a counselor sees a sign of abuse, suspects abuse, or hears a disclosure from a camper?

A real camp has a one-page protocol that includes immediate notification of the camp director, contact with parents, and contact with state child welfare agencies as required by law. If the camp can’t articulate the protocol in 60 seconds, they don’t have one.

Sexual abuse prevention training

Ask directly. Use the words.

What sexual abuse prevention training do your counselors complete? Is it annual? Is it certified by an external organization?

Programs that take this seriously use one of three certifications. Praesidium, Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children, or USOPC SafeSport for sports-specific camps. If your camp uses none of those and can’t name what they do use, that is a real flag.

Camps that have done the work will answer this question proudly. Camps that haven’t will get evasive.

Title IX and harassment training

For camps run on college campuses or affiliated with educational institutions, Title IX training is the standard. Ask:

What harassment and discrimination training do your staff complete?

For non-Title IX camps, ask about general harassment training and bystander intervention training. Real camps train counselors to recognize bullying, exclusion, and discrimination, and to act on it the same day.

The two-deep leadership rule

This is the most important question for overnight camp. Ask:

What is your two-deep leadership rule?

The two-deep rule means no adult is alone with a child in any space, ever. Two adults present at all times in cabins, bathrooms, transportation, and one-on-one coaching situations. This is the standard from Boy Scouts, USA Swimming, and most major youth-serving organizations.

If a camp doesn’t have a two-deep rule, that camp is not safe for an overnight, full stop. This is non-negotiable.

For day camps, the rule is similar but adapted. No counselor alone with a child in a closed-door space. Bathrooms supervised by two adults if accompaniment is needed. Transportation always has two adults.

Bunk and bathroom supervision

For overnight camps, ask:

How are bunks and bathrooms supervised at night?

Real answers include named adults sleeping in or adjacent to cabins, a check-in protocol at lights out, a counselor on overnight duty rotation, and bathrooms that lock from the inside but have an external override the camp director can use in emergency.

The wrong answer is the kids are pretty good about it. That’s not supervision.

Camper-on-camper conduct

Most abuse at camp is camper-on-camper, not adult-on-camper. Ask:

What’s your protocol when one camper makes another camper uncomfortable, physically or verbally?

Real camps have an escalation path. Counselor talks to both campers. If serious, both sets of parents are called. If physical or sexual in nature, the police are called and the camp follows mandatory reporting requirements.

The wrong answer is we let kids work it out. Kids cannot work out abuse with each other.

Medical staff and emergency protocols

Ask:

Is there a medical professional on site? What’s the response time for an injury or illness? What’s the protocol if a kid needs an emergency room?

Real camps have a registered nurse on site or on call within 15 minutes. Real camps have a designated hospital and a transport plan. Real camps inform parents immediately when their kid sees the medical staff for anything beyond a band-aid.

For sports camps specifically, ask about concussion protocols. Real camps have one. They follow the protocol every time, even when the kid says they’re fine.

Phone and communication policy

Ask:

What’s the phone policy for campers? How do parents communicate during the week if needed?

For overnight camps, most have a no-phone policy for kids. That’s fine. The question is the parent communication path. Real camps have a 24-hour parent line with a person who answers, not a voicemail.

Ask specifically how the camp handles a parent who calls because they haven’t heard from their kid and are worried. The answer should be a same-day callback with a check-in on the kid. If the camp’s answer is we don’t usually do that, you have an information problem.

Where to look up the camp’s record

For overnight camps, two resources to check:

The American Camp Association at acacamps.org. Their accreditation is meaningful, not perfunctory. Look up the camp by name. If accredited, the certification is real.

State health and licensing department records. Most states require overnight camps to be licensed. Look up the camp’s record. Look for past incidents, complaints, and license renewals. This is public information in most states.

For day camps, check the Better Business Bureau, parent reviews on multiple sites (not just the camp’s own page), and any local news mentions.

What to ask other parents

Find a parent whose kid attended last summer. Not from the camp’s testimonial page. Through your network or the local parent group chat.

Ask:

Did anything happen during the week that worried you? Was there an incident the camp didn’t handle well? Would you send your kid back?

The third question is the most useful. If the answer is yes, without question, the camp is probably fine. If the answer is I think so, dig in.

What you tell your kid

You don’t tell them any of this. Not the questions, not the answers, not the protocols.

What you tell them, the day you drop them off:

If anything happens at camp that makes you uncomfortable, tell a counselor. If it’s a counselor making you uncomfortable, tell a different counselor or the director. You can call us anytime, and we will come get you, no questions asked. There is no rule about toughing it out. Your job is to have fun. Our job is to be reachable.

Two minutes. Calm. Specific. Done.

Then they go have a great week, and you have done the work behind the scenes that lets them.

The hardest part

The hardest part of this list is asking it without sounding like you don’t trust the camp. You don’t have to trust the camp yet. Trust is earned by camps that answer these questions cleanly.

Camps that are doing the work will answer all of these in 15 minutes and thank you for asking. Camps that aren’t will deflect, get short, or say “we’ve never had a problem.”

We’ve never had a problem is not an answer. It’s a marketing line. The camps that have done the work have specific answers, written protocols, and named training programs. Those are the camps you want.

The two questions that filter most camps

If you have time for only two:

What sexual abuse prevention training do your counselors complete every year?

What is your two-deep leadership rule, and how do you enforce it?

A camp that answers both clearly is a camp that has thought about this. A camp that fumbles either is not.

Your kid focuses on the fun. You focus on the questions. That’s the deal.

Looking for camps that publish their safety credentials? Browse our directory. Verified listings include accreditations and training certifications.

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