Summer Camp Staff Evaluation Form (Free Printable Template)
- Aug 24
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 27
Every August, the same thing happens at camps across the country. The buses pull out, the staff scatter back to their hometowns, and somewhere in a program office there's a stack of blank staff evaluation forms that nobody filled out.
Here's why it really matters for camps: your end-of-season evaluations are next summer's hiring plan. The counselors you want back, the ones who are ready for leadership, the ones who shouldn't return. All of that lives in the evaluation process, or it lives nowhere. Camps hire 1.2 million seasonal positions every year, and the cheapest hire you will ever make is the great staff member you already have.
This post gives you the whole system for evaluating camp staff at the end of the season. Take what you need.
Download the Summer Camp Staff Evaluation Form
Get the shareable printable PDF version
What to watch our for with your camp staff evaluations
Three reasons, and they're all fixable.
They happen once, at the worst possible time.
The end of the season is when everyone, including you, is running on empty. If the first time a counselor hears real feedback is during checkout week, the evaluation is a formality, not a development tool. Gallup's research found that 80% of employees who received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged. Feedback works when it's frequent. A single end-of-summer conversation can't carry that weight alone.
They're vague.
"Good with kids" appears on more camp evaluations than any other phrase, and it tells the staff member nothing. Good how? With which kids? In which situations? Vague praise and vague criticism are equally useless.
They're not anchored to anything.
If you never defined expectations, you can't evaluate against them. The evaluation starts back in June, with the job description and the code of conduct your staff signed. Those two documents are the rubric. The form just measures against them.
What to evaluate: the six competencies that matter at camp
We built the template around six competencies, because after enough seasons of hiring and evaluating camp staff, these are the ones that separate the staff you rehire from the staff you don't.
Safety and judgment - Follows protocols, makes good calls under pressure, escalates when they should. Non-negotiable and evaluated first.
Camper relationships - Connects with campers, including the tough ones, and creates belonging, not just fun.
Teamwork - Shows up for co-counselors, handles conflict directly, makes the people around them better.
Reliability and initiative - On time, where they're supposed to be, sees what needs doing without being asked.
Program quality - Runs activities with energy and structure; adapts when the plan falls apart, which at camp is daily.
Growth and coachability - Takes feedback, improves over the season, owns mistakes.
Each competency gets a rating and a required specific example. That second part is the part most forms skip. A rating without an example is an opinion. A rating with an example is an evaluation.
The summer camp staff evaluation form (free printable template)
The form is one page, on purpose. You may be evaluating 40, 80, 150 staff members. A form that takes 45 minutes per person will not get done; a form that takes ten will.
What it includes:
Staff member info, role, and evaluator
The six competencies on a four-point scale (exceeds expectations, meets expectations, developing, needs improvement), each with a space for a specific example
Three open questions: greatest strength this season, one area to develop, and standout moments worth remembering
The rehire section, the most important box on the page, with scoring criteria and recommended next-season role, because your best counselor might be next year's unit leader
Signature lines for evaluator and staff member
Two notes on the four-point scale, because we get asked: there's no middle option on purpose (a five-point scale collects threes the way camp collects lost water bottles), and "needs improvement" is not a punishment — it's information. Some of our favorite rehires were "developing" in year one.
Download the printable PDF below, or rebuild it in your ATS or HR platform; most modern camp hiring tools support custom evaluation workflows.
Staff evaluation questions that get honest answers
Whether you use our form or your own, the questions determine the quality of the answers. Skip "How was your summer?" and ask these:
What's a moment from this season you're proud of?
Tell me about a time this summer that didn't go the way you wanted. What did you do?
Which camper did you have the hardest time reaching, and what did you try?
What did your co-counselors need from you that was hard to give?
What should we change about how this camp is run?
What would make you come back next summer?
That last one is not a courtesy question. It's retention intelligence. Ask it in every single evaluation, write the answers down, and read them in January when you're building offers.
The camp counselor self-evaluation
Have staff complete a short self-evaluation before the conversation: the same six competencies, rated by them, plus three prompts.
Where did I grow the most this season?
Where did I fall short of what I expected from myself?
What do I want to be trusted with next summer?
The gap between their ratings and yours is where the real conversation lives. A counselor who rates themselves lower than you did needs confidence. A counselor who rates themselves higher than you did needs clarity. Either way, you learn more from the gap than from the scores.
Staff evaluation comments: examples that help
The difference between a useless comment and a useful one is specificity. Same counselor, two versions:
Instead of: "Great with kids, super positive!"
Write: "When a first-year camper refused to get in the lake all week, Jordan skipped their off-hour to sit on the dock with him. By Friday he was swimming. That patience showed up all season."
Instead of: "Needs to work on responsibility."
Write: "Late to morning lineup four times in July. When we talked about it, Jordan owned it and was on time the rest of the season. That response matters as much as the issue."
The test: could the staff member read the comment a year from now and know exactly what you meant? Could you, when deciding whether to rehire them? Specific comments are also what protect you if a "no rehire" decision is ever questioned. Vague forms defend nobody.
When to evaluate: twice, not once
Mid-season check-in (15 minutes, informal).
Same six competencies, conversation only, no paperwork beyond your own notes. This is where "developing" staff become "meets expectations" by August, and where problems get addressed while there's still a season left to fix them. An end-of-summer surprise is a failure of the mid-season conversation.
End-of-season evaluation (the form, the conversation, the signatures).
Do it during the last week while everyone is still on camp — not by email in September, when your response rate will be a rounding error. Checkout day is chaos; the day before checkout is your window.
Then the part that's easy to skip: put the forms somewhere you'll actually find them. Next June, when it's time to send return offers for next summer, that evaluation is the difference between a real hiring decision and a vibe. And when a leadership role opens, your "enthusiastically rehire" pile is where your strongest internal candidates have been waiting all along.
One more connection worth making: if you're evaluating your camp's leadership (directors, executive directors), that's a different instrument entirely. We built a separate evaluation template for nonprofit executive directors for exactly that.
Frequently asked questions
What should a summer camp staff evaluation form include?
Six things: the staff member's role and evaluator, ratings across core competencies (safety and judgment, camper relationships, teamwork, reliability, program quality, and coachability), a specific example supporting each rating, open questions about strengths and growth areas, a rehire recommendation with a suggested next-season role, and signatures from both people. One page is enough: a form that takes ten minutes gets completed, and a form that takes 45 doesn't.
When should camps evaluate seasonal staff?
Twice: an informal mid-season check-in while there's still time to fix problems, and a formal end-of-season evaluation during the final week, while staff are still on camp. Emailing evaluation forms in September doesn't work; response rates collapse the moment the buses leave.
What are good staff evaluation questions?
Ask for specifics, not summaries: a moment they're proud of, a situation that didn't go as planned and what they did, the camper they had the hardest time reaching, and what they'd change about how camp is run. End every evaluation with "What would make you come back next summer?" The answers become your retention plan for the following season.
Should camp staff complete a self-evaluation?
Yes: a short one, before the evaluation conversation, rating themselves on the same competencies. The gap between their self-ratings and the evaluator's ratings is the most useful thing in the room: staff who underrate themselves need confidence, staff who overrate themselves need clarity, and the conversation about the gap is where development actually happens.
Why do staff evaluations matter for rehiring?
Because returning staff are the cheapest, lowest-risk hires a camp makes, and evaluations are the record that makes rehiring a decision instead of a guess. The rehire recommendation (enthusiastically, yes, with reservations, or no) plus a suggested next-season role turns each form into next summer's staffing plan, including your internal pipeline for leadership roles.
Download Summer Camp Staff Evaluation Form
CampHire helps camps build hiring systems that work, from Seasonal Recruiting to the templates and processes behind it. If staffing next summer already feels daunting, let's talk.