What Should a Camp's Emergency Action Plan Include?

Every camp, day or overnight, needs a written emergency action plan, not just a general sense that staff will handle whatever comes up. The American Camp Association (ACA) treats emergency planning as one of the core pillars of camp accreditation, alongside health care and staff training.

What ACA accreditation expects

ACA-accredited camps are evaluated against as many as 300 health and safety standards, and emergency action planning is a specific, named requirement, not an optional add-on. ACA guidance is explicit that training on the plan should extend to every employee, from the camp director down to seasonal and volunteer staff, not just senior leadership.

The core elements of a camp emergency action plan

• Written procedures for the emergencies most likely at that specific camp: severe weather, medical incidents, a missing camper, fire, or a lost swimmer
• A clear chain of command, so every staff member knows who makes decisions during an incident, not only who's in charge on paper
• Communication protocols covering staff-to-staff, staff-to-leadership, and camp-to-family communication
• Coordination with local fire, EMS, and law enforcement established before the season starts, not discovered mid-incident
• Training for the full staff roster, paid and volunteer, consistent with ACA's accreditation expectations
• A process for reviewing and updating the plan each season, rather than treating it as a one-time document

Where day camps and overnight camps differ

Overnight camps carry planning needs day camps don't face the same way: sheltering campers across multiple structures during severe weather, covering medical needs overnight without daytime staffing levels, and communicating with families who aren't nearby to help. The core plan structure is the same, but an overnight camp's plan needs to account for a longer, less supervised window.

Questions camp directors are asking

Does every staff member need to know the emergency plan, or just leadership?
ACA's standards call for training across the whole staff roster, paid and volunteer, not just directors.

How often should a camp's emergency action plan be updated?
At minimum once per season, and after any real incident or near miss.

Does a day camp need the same plan as an overnight camp?
The core structure is the same, but overnight camps need additional planning for scenarios that don't come up during day-only operation.

How Joffe helps

Joffe's safety consulting team has spent more than 15 years building emergency plans for K-12 schools. That same structured approach, chain of command, communication protocols, first responder coordination, applies directly to camp environments. Learn more about Joffe's safety consulting work.

Sources: American Camp Association, Safety at Camp; American Camp Association, "17 Gaps in Your Emergency Action Plan"