“Can someone please share their enrollment agreement? We’re updating our contracts, and I need a good template.”

If you’re a member of any of the online camp forums — from the ACA Message Boards to the Camp Pro Collective on Facebook — chances are that you’ve regularly seen these types of requests for contract templates. The reason is simple: legal fees can add up quickly, creating a strong incentive to reuse contracts from other camps. “After all,” the reasoning goes, “we’re enrolling campers, running retreats, and hiring staff, just like they are, so why not use their contracts?” While sharing templates seems like a practical solution, it can introduce risks that aren’t immediately obvious.

Before you rely on these reused documents, it’s important to ask yourself the following questions: 

  • Who drafted the original agreement — was it a qualified attorney?
  • Was the agreement tailored to the laws of a specific state that may not apply in your state?
  • How many well-meaning staff members made changes to the agreement before it reached your inbox?

These questions all point to what we might call the “Telephone Problem.” Remember the children’s game of Telephone? One person whispers a message to their neighbor, who passes it along to the person next to them, and so on. By the time the message reaches the last person in the line, it’s often barely recognizable. The same thing happens with reused contracts — except it’s difficult to know where the line started, which state law the contract was based on, and how much the document has changed along the way.

This issue is not merely theoretical; even small changes to an agreement can have significant legal consequences. For example, assume an offer letter is initially drafted to establish at-will employment, meaning that either party can terminate the relationship at any time and for any lawful reason. At some point, a well-meaning camp director adds a couple sentences to clarify employment dates: “You commit to working from June 15 to August 15. You will not leave early without prior approval from management.” This seemingly innocuous addition shifts the nature of the employment relationship from at-will to a term of employment. In a term-based agreement, an employee can only be terminated “for cause,” meaning you would be restricted in your ability to terminate an underperforming counselor without risking a breach of contract claim.

Another common feature of camp offer letters is specifying that the employee will receive a single paycheck at the end of the summer. This practice is perfectly acceptable in states that don’t have “pay frequency laws.” However, if you’re in a state that mandates employees be paid on a specific schedule — such as once every two weeks — then paying employees only at the end of the season could result in noncompliance with state labor laws, leading to potential fines or legal issues with the Department of Labor.

These are just two of many examples of how seemingly minor changes can significantly impact a contract’s enforceability and legal soundness. When you reuse a contract from another camp, it’s hard to know how many of these types of risks are lurking in its language.

It’s also important to keep in mind that indemnification, waiver, and other protective clauses often use complex language and impose obligations that can be difficult to fully understand, which may lead to unexpected legal consequences. For example, imagine an agreement requires your camp to indemnify a rental group. If this provision were written in simple terms, it might say: “The camp will cover the retreat group’s defense costs and losses if a retreat guest sues.” This is clearly the opposite of what a camp would want in a rental agreement, but because indemnification provisions are rarely written in plain English, their implications can be easily overlooked or misunderstood.

So, how does this happen? Often, a rental group requests indemnification, and the camp agrees to the request for that particular group. When a new rental group comes along, a well-meaning staff member modifies the most recent rental agreement and unintentionally adopts the indemnification clause as part of the new template — and that’s the version that gets shared with you.

When we consider the unknown origins of sample contracts, the unknown state laws on which they’re based, and the unknown number of editors who may have made changes, it’s easy to appreciate that the safest course of action is to avoid using them. Within that context, let’s explore some key considerations for the contracts that define your camp’s relationship with families and staff.

1. Enrollment Agreements

We begin by considering our agreements with campers and their parents. The enrollment agreement is as much a tool for information sharing as it is a mechanism to mitigate legal risk. A well-drafted enrollment agreement contemplates many key aspects of your relationship with families. On behalf of themselves and their camper, parents agree to:

  • your camp’s essential rules and expectations
  • your payment schedule
  • your cancellation and refund policy
  • submitting required forms on time
  • consenting to camper participation in all camp activities and off-site trips
  • the camp’s use of photos or videos for promotional purposes
  • receiving communications from camp by email and text message
  • obtaining proper insurance coverage for the camper
  • disclosing all relevant information about the camper
  • a “force majeure” clause outlining that the camp is not liable for events beyond its control (which became especially relevant during the pandemic)

While this list can go on, these are some of the basic provisions that establish your relationship with families, impose legal obligations on parents, and create a shared understanding of your camp’s expectations. While enrollment agreements define relationships, they can also play an important role in managing legal risk.

With the goal of mitigating risk, many camps include liability waivers in these agreements. Indeed, an enrollment agreement is often named a “Waiver Agreement” or a “Waiver and Assumption of Risk Agreement” — despite including all the other provisions we just outlined — because using this type of name helps establish that the signatories knew they were waiving liability at the time they signed. Since waivers are among the most legally fraught provisions of enrollment agreements, let’s focus on them in a bit more detail.

Waiver of Liability

Among the most complex and frequently misunderstood aspects of enrollment agreements is the waiver of liability. The term “waiver” has a twofold meaning. First, a waiver is one particular type of contract clause, and second, the term is also used to refer to a larger agreement that includes multiple contractual provisions that each serve a distinct legal function and come together to reduce liability risk. This type of agreement not only includes the waiver clause itself, but also additional protective terms that attempt to limit liability through other legal mechanisms.

The main components of a comprehensive waiver agreement are the assumption of risk, waiver of liability, and indemnification clauses. Additional provisions often include an agreement to comply with essential camp policies and parental consent for camp activities. Let’s examine each of these.

  • Assumption of Risk: A key part of an enrollment agreement is the assumption of risk clause, which identifies certain risks that are inherent in camp activities, meaning they may occur even if the camp does nothing wrong. To give a simple example, slipping on a basketball court is a risk of playing basketball, no matter how well the court is maintained. The assumption of risk clause informs families of such inherent risks and attempts to shield the camp from liability for events outside its control.
  • Waiver Clause: The waiver clause itself aims to reduce liability for injuries resulting from “ordinary negligence,” which is the failure to exercise the care that a reasonable person would exercise under similar circumstances. While some courts (but not all) permit waivers for ordinary negligence, they typically reject waivers for gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional harm. This means that while a waiver may shield against liability for minor oversights, it cannot protect against more severe conduct.
  • Indemnification: This clause requires one party to cover legal costs if the other party faces certain claims. As discussed in more detail later, parents can more commonly waive liability on behalf of themselves than on behalf of their camper. Thus, the indemnification provision essentially means: “I, the parent, may not be able to waive liability on behalf of my camper, but if my camper chooses to sue the camp, then I’ll cover your costs.” Just note that courts are more likely to uphold these provisions between businesses than they are to uphold them when an individual indemnifies a business.
  • Agreement to Follow Essential Policies: This provision ensures that campers agree to comply with camp’s policies and procedures. Your enrollment agreement can include a list of your essential camp rules and require parents and their camper to affirm that they will follow those rules. This helps establish a defense if you’re sued for some event that arises from a camper violating a rule they agreed to follow.
  • Parental Consent: Your enrollment agreement is also a good place for parents to consent for their camper to participate in all camp activities, especially once the risks are outlined. This establishes that parents understood the risks and gave permission, which helps address future claims that a parent was unaware of a particular activity and wouldn’t have allowed their camper to participate if they’d known about it.

Choice of Law

A key factor in the enforceability of waivers is the state law governing the agreement, making the “choice of law” clause an important consideration. As the name suggests, a choice of law clause reflects an agreement of the parties that the contract will be governed by the law of a particular state. This is especially important when using waivers, because their enforceability varies significantly across state lines. For example, Massachusetts courts sometimes uphold waivers, viewing them as a legitimate tool to protect business interests. By contrast, Virginia courts consider waivers a violation of public policy. For camps, this variability is compounded by the fact that parents sign waivers on behalf of themselves and their campers. In New Jersey, for example, courts have ruled that parents cannot waive liability on behalf of their kids (although parents may be able to for themselves). Colorado courts, however, have upheld well-drafted parental waivers that include minors. Ultimately, enforceability often depends on which state’s laws apply — so we want to make sure, to the extent possible, that the enrollment agreement is based on favorable law.

Courts generally uphold the state law the parties agree to in a contract, but challenges may arise if there is no reasonable connection between the chosen state and the parties’ relationship. For instance, if your camp is located, incorporated, and operates solely in Maine, where parental waivers are typically not enforceable, a Massachusetts choice of law clause may lack the necessary connection to Maine. This means a Maine court could disregard the Massachusetts choice of law. However, if your camp operates in Maine but is incorporated in Massachusetts, has a year-round office there, and serves numerous Massachusetts families, then a Massachusetts choice of law clause is more likely to be upheld.

Prioritize Risk Mitigation

To be sure, waivers are far from flawless instruments. Some states don’t recognize them at all, while others interpret them so strictly that enforcement can be challenging, if not impossible. To effectively mitigate risk, it’s critical to prioritize strong safety policies, robust staff training, diligent supervision, well-maintained facilities, and comprehensive insurance coverage. These form the backbone of risk mitigation and a safe camp environment. Within this framework, your waivers become a piece of the larger risk-mitigation puzzle.

2. The Employment Relationship: Offer Letters and Staff Handbooks

Let us now turn to the documents you use to define the relationship between your camp and its employees.

Offer Letters

When your camp hires staff, you likely send them an offer letter that outlines their basic terms of employment. Your offer letter is, by analogy, something like the employment version of your camper enrollment agreement. Offer letters define the details of the employment relationship, including:

  • title
  • job description
  • salary
  • timing of payroll
  • employment dates
  • expected hours
  • days off
  • employee benefits
  • the at-will nature of the relationship
  • the conditions on which the job offer is based (successful completion of a criminal background check, verification of the right to work in the United States, etc.)

The fact that camps commonly include waivers in their enrollment agreements sometimes leads to an assumption that we should also include waivers in our employment agreements. However, while waivers are acceptable for campers, parents, and retreat guests in some states, they’re typically considered a violation of public policy in the employment context due to the power imbalance between employers and employees. So, if you see a waiver in an employment agreement, it’s likely an example of the Telephone Problem rather than an intentional legal drafting decision.

Staff Handbooks

In addition to an offer letter, many employers also provide employees with a detailed staff handbook. The purpose of an offer letter is fairly intuitive, but staff handbooks are much more commonly misunderstood; camps typically treat their offer letters as the legal documents they are, but they mistakenly treat their staff handbooks as an internal document with no legal significance. In reality, courts treat the handbook as an extension of the employment agreement.

While offer letters establish the foundational terms of employment, staff handbooks build on these foundations to provide clarity on broader policies and compliance requirements. From a legal standpoint, a staff handbook primarily does three things:

  1. It creates additional contractual obligations for staff.
  2. It sets forth organizational policies that ensure compliance with federal and state employment laws.
  3. It sets forth other organizational policies that the camp wants staff to follow but that are not tied to any legal obligation.

Contractual Obligations

Let’s consider the contractual obligations imposed by a handbook. Going back to our preceding example, imagine an offer letter states that a staff member is at-will, meaning they can be terminated for any lawful reason with or without notice. By contrast, the staff handbook specifies that termination must follow a specific series of steps, including a preliminary conversation with a manager followed by a written performance improvement plan. If an employee is terminated without following those steps, it opens the door to a breach of contract claim — “the camp didn’t follow its own procedures when it separated me” — despite the at-will language of the offer letter.

Along the same lines, if your handbook says that staff are entitled to camp-provided transportation for day-off activities, all staff get a certain number of days off during the summer, or everyone has some other entitlement, then you may very well have created contractual obligations to carry out those entitlements. While these are just a few examples, the key point is that it’s important to ensure that a staff handbook establishes the contractual obligations that you intend to establish — such as binding staff to follow your code of conduct — while making sure not to create unintentional consequences.

Compliance with Employment Laws

Camp professionals often recognize the importance of complying with various federal and state employment laws, but many aren’t fully aware of the specific laws that apply or what those laws actually require. A properly drafted handbook thus serves as an internal policy guide that helps enumerate and ensure compliance with the myriad of applicable employment laws. This is why handbooks typically include provisions regarding:

  • camp’s commitment to equal employment opportunity
  • prohibitions on harassment and discrimination
  • complaint procedures to raise concerns to management
  • reasonable accommodation policies concerning disability, religion, and pregnancy
  • employee classifications and minimum wage exemptions
  • medical leave policies, family leave policies, and various other leave entitlements
  • rest break policies
  • payroll practices and final paycheck policy
  • disciplinary procedures
  • codes of conduct and key expectations
  • various other policies required by law or intended to ensure compliance with legal obligations

Employment law generally tends to be more intuitive than certain other areas. It’s easy to understand that minors are entitled to specific daily rest breaks, or that employees in certain states are entitled to paid sick leave after they work a certain number of hours. However, the significant challenge is that there are so many applicable requirements, and they vary from state to state. This is why it’s especially risky to use a staff handbook from another camp.

For example, one state may mandate biweekly pay for employees, while a neighboring state permits payment at the end of the season. Another state may exempt camp staff from minimum wage requirements, while a nearby state does not. Some states require that employees are paid immediately upon separation, whereas others allow payment on the regular payroll schedule. Certain states offer paid family leave, while others provide no such benefit. Some states require employers to provide meal breaks after a set number of hours worked, while others impose no such requirements or have shorter break times. These are just a few top-of-mind examples; the list of differences is long.

Moreover, federal employment laws impose their own obligations that should also be turned into organizational policies. How many of us have had the experience of a staff member requesting a medical accommodation three days into camp? The kids have arrived, the program is in full swing, management is busy, and the request raises immediate legal concerns, yet no one is sure of the next step. The simple solution? Have a three-paragraph policy in your handbook regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. Then, when a staff member requests an accommodation, management can simply follow the policy with no guesswork involved.

Of course, this same principle applies to various other legal mandates. When a staff member arrives on opening day with a different gender identity than anticipated based on the interview, when a counselor needs to leave camp for a week and requests paid sick leave, when an employee tells you they are pregnant and need accommodations — and in so many other legally fraught scenarios — your management team should be empowered to simply reference your existing policies, which have been drafted and vetted in the calmness of the off-season to ensure compliance with state and federal law. It takes all the guesswork out of the process.

On the other hand, if the myriad employment law considerations arising under state and federal law are not systematically considered and documented in either a handbook or other policy documents, then compliance becomes nearly impossible. Each state has numerous employment laws concerning the topics previously listed and many others, and these laws differ across state lines. How can you or your staff possibly know what to do and what the law requires unless you’ve turned the applicable legal requirements into concise organizational policies? This is an essential purpose of the staff handbook.

Optional Policies

While compliance with legal requirements is a cornerstone of a strong handbook, you can also include policies that are not legal requirements but reflect your camp’s unique values or operational needs. For example, if your camp has a particular dress code, code of conduct, or policies for the protection of minors, then the handbook can document those policies and bind your staff to follow them.

Draft Carefully

Offer letters and staff handbooks are foundational to establishing clear expectations, ensuring legal compliance, and mitigating risk. A well-drafted offer letter preserves the at-will nature of employment while memorializing the essential terms and ensuring clear expectations. A carefully drafted staff handbook not only creates enforceable policies, but also gives your staff a clear roadmap for legal compliance with the state and federal employment laws.

3. Vendor Contracts

While a detailed exploration of this topic is beyond our current scope, it’s important to recognize that camps frequently enter into a wide range of contracts with vendors and service providers. However, whereas your own contracts are structured to protect the camp’s interests and limit your liability exposure, vendor contracts are drafted with the vendor’s protection in mind. So, for example, you may be the one waiving the vendor’s liability or indemnifying the vendor for its own negligence.

For smaller, routine vendor agreements, the risk of significant legal or financial exposure is typically minimal. However, when it comes to larger relationships that involve substantial financial commitments and critical services, the stakes are higher and the potential for disputes, misunderstandings, or liability claims increases. For this type of relationship, you’d be well-served to carefully review the agreement and consider, among other questions:

  • Are you waiving the vendor’s liability?
  • Are you agreeing to indemnify the vendor for their own negligence?
  • Are you limiting the vendor’s accountability for failures in service?
  • Are you agreeing to other one-sided terms that are beneficial to the vendor but harmful to you?

Final Thoughts

Just as it would be impossible to take another camp’s program and simply implement it for your organization, contracts and handbooks aren’t one-size-fits-all. These documents require thoughtful preparation and careful drafting to protect your camp, ensure legal compliance, and create clear expectations for families and staff. A contract copied from another camp may feel like an easy fix, but a quick solution today could become a significant issue down the line, leaving you exposed to unexpected consequences when a conflict arises. By taking the time now to draft agreements properly — taking into account the specific law that applies to your camp, and your unique facts and circumstances — you’re investing in a foundation of safety and thoughtfully mitigating risk for your organization. While templates may offer a tempting shortcut, carefully tailored agreements are an investment in helping your camp thrive without unnecessary legal exposure.


Isaac Mamaysky is a partner at Potomac Law Group PLLC, where he started a practice team focused on the camp industry. He and his law partners regularly represent day and overnight camps in a wide range of legal matters. In addition to his law practice, Isaac is the founder and executive director of a large ACA-accredited overnight camp in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. He writes the Camp Law Blog (camplawandfinance.com).

This article is intended for educational purposes only. You should not act on this information without the advice of your attorney. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Potomac Law Group PLLC.


 

The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Camp Association or ACA employees.