Involving volunteers under 18

This guide is for small charities that want to involve teenagers as volunteers: a high schooler earning service hours at the food pantry, a youth group helping at a park cleanup, a teen who wants to tutor younger children. Young volunteers bring energy, fresh ideas and their friends. They also need more care than adult volunteers, both to keep them safe and to keep your charity on the right side of the law. After reading, you'll know what to put in place before a volunteer under 18 starts, and where the risks are.

Before they start

Permission from a parent or guardian

For any volunteer under 18, get written permission from a parent or legal guardian before the first shift. A simple form should cover:

• the volunteer's name, age and school (if relevant)
• the role, where it happens, and the usual days and times
• emergency contacts and any medical information you need to know, such as allergies
• permission for any off-site trips and how the volunteer will travel
• whether you may take and use photos (more below)
• the parent's or guardian's signature and date

Keep the forms somewhere safe and private, and bring copies to off-site activities.

A real role, with a named supervisor

Treat youth roles like any other volunteer role: a short role description, clear tasks and a named adult supervisor. Our guide to volunteer management explains how to write roles. Tell young volunteers, and their parents, exactly who to go to with a question or a worry.

Screening and safeguarding

Young volunteers are often working near children, or are themselves young enough to need protecting. Your screening and safeguarding policies should cover both. See our guide to volunteer screening and safeguarding.

Supervision: keep it observable

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published guidance for youth-serving organizations on preventing child sexual abuse. It names six key components: screening and selecting employees and volunteers; guidelines on interactions between individuals; monitoring behavior; ensuring safe environments; responding to inappropriate behavior, policy breaches and suspicions of abuse; and training.

On supervision, the CDC guidance says:

• Limit one-on-one time. Some organizations require at least two adults to be present with youth at all times, to avoid one adult being alone with one young person. The CDC suggests choosing whether to make this mandatory at all times, to apply it to higher-risk situations such as overnight trips, or, where the work requires one-on-one time (such as mentoring), to use other safeguards like extra supervision and stricter screening.
• Set ratios with thought. The CDC says there is no standard ratio of adults to youth for all situations. Consider the age of the young people and the adults, how risky or isolated the activity is, and how easy the place is to monitor. Younger participants or younger volunteers may mean fewer youth per adult.
• Supervise actively. A good ratio doesn't help if all the adults are chatting in a corner. Adults should be engaged with the young people.
• Watch interactions among young people too, not just between adults and youth.

For most small charities, a two-adult rule is good practice and easy to explain: no adult volunteer or staff member is alone and out of sight with a young person. Plan rooms, shifts and car rides around it.

When "volunteering" becomes work

Federal child labor rules come from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and apply to young people who are employed. The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet 43 sets out those rules for jobs outside agriculture. For example, 14- and 15-year-olds may work only outside school hours, for up to 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week, and federal rules stop applying at 18.

True volunteers are different. The Department of Labor says a volunteer generally won't be considered an employee under the FLSA if they volunteer freely for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives, without contemplation or receipt of compensation. Its FLSA Advisor says people who volunteer their services, usually part time, for charitable nonprofits aren't considered employees of those organizations.

But the label alone doesn't decide it. In its fact sheet on youth sales, the Department of Labor warns that some employers try to get around the child labor rules by calling young workers "volunteers," and says it uses the same criteria to decide whether a young person is an employee as it does for any other worker. So:

• Don't pay young volunteers for their time, and be careful with anything that looks like pay: regular gift cards, cash "thank-yous" tied to hours, or free goods worth real money.
• Keep the work charitable. The Department of Labor says people generally can't volunteer in a nonprofit's commercial activities, such as a gift shop.
• Don't let a teen employee "volunteer" extra hours doing the same job you pay them for.

If you do hire a young person, the child labor rules apply in full. Our guide to employee, contractor or volunteer explains the basic classification questions.

State rules vary

States have their own child labor laws, and many go further than federal law. The Department of Labor says that when both federal and state rules apply, the stricter standard must be followed, and notes that many states require work permits for minors and limit the hours of workers 16 and older, which federal law doesn't. Check with your state labor department before you set up a youth program.

Tasks to keep young volunteers away from

The Department of Labor lists 17 hazardous occupations orders that ban or restrict work by anyone under 18 in paid jobs. They are written for employment, but they are a sensible guide for volunteers too. They include:

• driving motor vehicles, or working as an outside helper on them
• power-driven hoisting equipment, such as forklifts
• power-driven circular saws, band saws and woodworking machines
• power-driven meat-processing machines
• power-driven bakery machines
• balers and compactors
• roofing, demolition, and trenching or excavation

Look at your own work through this lens. A food bank's box crusher, a workshop's table saw, a ladder on a roof: keep teen volunteers well away.

Transport

The CDC guidance asks youth-serving organizations to decide in advance:

• when your organization is responsible for transporting young people, and when parents are
• whether a young person can ride in a car with a staff member or volunteer, and if so when, and whether they can be alone with that adult
• how pick-up works at the end of the day or the event

Write the answers down and share them with parents. As a simple rule, avoid having one adult drive one young person alone, and get parents' written permission for any travel. Check with your insurer whether volunteers driving their own cars are covered.

Photos and privacy

Photos of young volunteers at work are great for your newsletter, but they need care:

• Ask permission on the parent or guardian form, and respect a "no." Keep a list of who has opted out.
• Don't post a young person's full name, school or other details with their photo.
• Don't let adult volunteers take or share photos of young people on their own phones or social media accounts.
• Keep forms, emergency contacts and medical details private, and only share them with the people who need them.

Insurance

Check that your insurance covers volunteers under 18 and the activities they'll do. A policy may have age limits or exclusions, so ask your agent or broker directly, and see our guide to insurance basics.

Youth volunteer checklist

• Every volunteer under 18 has a signed parent or guardian permission form
• Each youth role has a description and a named adult supervisor
• Our screening and safeguarding policy covers young volunteers
• We have a two-adult rule and everyone knows it
• We don't pay young volunteers or let "volunteering" drift into work
• We checked our state's rules on minors
• Teens are kept away from hazardous equipment and tasks
• We have written transport rules and parent permission for travel
• We follow photo permissions and keep personal details private
• Our insurer confirmed young volunteers are covered

If you'd like to talk to a charity that runs a youth volunteer program, ask a member charity for help through the Exchange.

General information, not legal advice. Rules change and every situation is different, so check the official sources and talk to a qualified professional before you act.