Food allergies at school and camp: a parent's prep checklist

Updated 2026-07-22

Handing your allergic child to a school or a camp is one of the hardest parts of allergy parenting. You are trusting people who do not know your child to recognise a reaction and act fast. Preparation is what makes that safe. Here is a sourced checklist of what to put in place.

This is general information, not medical advice. Build your child's plan with their allergist and the school or camp, and follow it.

1. Get a written emergency care plan

The foundation is a Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan (sometimes called an Allergy and Anaphylaxis Emergency Plan), completed and signed by your child's doctor. It lists the allergens, the symptoms to watch for, and exactly what to do, including when to use epinephrine. FARE and the CDC both treat this document as the core of school and camp allergy management.

2. Put the plan into a 504 plan or health plan

In US schools, the emergency care plan usually sits inside a broader written plan: an Individualized Healthcare Plan (IHP) and/or a Section 504 plan, which set out the accommodations the school will make. FARE has guidance on Section 504 and written management plans. Ask the school nurse or administration how to start one.

3. Provide the epinephrine, and know the school's supply

Submit at least one in-date epinephrine auto-injector (plus any other prescribed medication) with the plan. Separately, under the 2013 School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, US schools are permitted to keep unassigned ("stock") epinephrine for anyone having a reaction, and it should be stored somewhere unlocked and quickly reachable. Ask whether your school stocks it and who is trained to give it.

4. For camp, confirm the plan before day one

Camps may have their own allergy action plan, or you can use the FARE emergency care plan. FARE's camp guidance is clear that the relevant staff should be trained before camp starts: they need to know your child's allergens, where the epinephrine is, how to use it, and the camp's emergency protocol. Confirm all of this in writing ahead of time, not at drop-off.

5. Make the information easy to carry and hand over

A plan only helps if the right adult can find it fast. Give teachers, camp counsellors, the nurse and the kitchen a short, clear summary they can keep: allergens, whether your child carries an auto-injector, an emergency contact, and the first-aid steps.

This is exactly what the AllergyLens allergy passport is for. From a child's profile you can print it, or save it as a PDF, to hand to a teacher, camp or babysitter, in the language you need. It carries the allergens, the epinephrine status, the emergency contact and the anaphylaxis steps on one page. It does not replace the doctor-signed emergency care plan the school requires, it is a plain-language handover to sit alongside it.

The short version

• Doctor-signed emergency care plan first.
• Fold it into a 504 / health plan at school.
• Provide epinephrine, and ask about the school's stock supply.
• Train camp staff before camp starts.
• Give every carer a simple, portable summary they can act on.