A teenager asks you to be their reference, and you are not sure what you are agreeing to.
It happens at the end of a shift, or on an application form that asks for a name and a phone number. A fifteen or sixteen-year-old you supervise at a pool, a camp, a rec department, or a store is applying for their first real job somewhere else, and they want to list you as someone who can say they showed up and did the work. Most of the time that phone number sits on a form nobody calls, and if anyone ever does ask later, you are trying to remember a season from memory with nothing written down. This page is for the adult being asked, not the teenager: a shorter way to say the same thing, that does not disappear the way a scrawled number does.
Checked against the live signing page and the request path a student uses to ask for a signature. Requirements on this page last reviewed November 9, 2026. The product as it runs today is always the source of truth.
What you are not being asked to do
You are not issuing the legal paperwork a minor needs to be hired. In New York, that is an employment certificate, “working papers,” issued through the student’s own school, not by any employer, and it exists whether or not anyone ever asks you for a reference. The page that covers that process is written for the student, not you: working papers and references. What a family-friendly application actually asks you for, separately, is a line that says you watched this person work and what you saw.
Why a scrawled number is the problem
A phone number on an application only works if someone calls it, and most reviewers do not have time to call every reference on every form. The ones that do call are asking you to remember details from months or seasons ago, on the spot, with nothing in front of you.
And a verbal reference proves nothing once the call ends. There is nothing the teenager can show the next application, the one after that, or a scholarship form that asks for the same thing again.
The other way, in one tap
The teenager sends you a link, by text or by email, from their own page. You open it on your phone. It already says what you are being asked to confirm: that they worked for you, roughly when, and roughly what they did. You type your name and your role, and a short line in your own words, and you tap sign. No account, no app to download, no password to remember, and nothing to upload.
Nobody chases you if you close the tab instead. A teenager asks once, and there is no reminder if you never get to it. The link stays open for about two months from when it was sent, plenty of time to sign. Reopening it anytime in that window, even after you have already signed, shows you exactly what you said, with a second link to the public page for it. Save that second link if you think anyone will want to check later; it does not expire the way the first one does.
What you are and are not being asked to do
You are confirming what you saw, in your own words: that this person worked for you, roughly how long, and roughly what the work was. You are not grading them, comparing them to anyone else you have supervised, or vouching for anything beyond what you watched happen. If you would rather not sign, closing the link is the whole answer. Nobody is told, and nothing is held against the teenager for an unanswered ask.
What the next reader gets from this
Whoever checks a reference later, a different employer, a scholarship committee, sees the public page for what you signed, not the link the teenager first sent you. Anyone holding that public link, saved from reopening the ask inside its first two months or handed over fresh from the teenager’s own page, opens it directly and sees your name, your line, and the date you signed, with no account and no call to your desk. It never expires, even once the original ask does.
If you supervise more than one teenager
A whole summer staff can send you links across a season with no extra setup on your side: each one opens to the specific work it is asking about, and each one takes the same one tap. Read what signing asks of you, written for a supervisor signing for the first time.
For the teenager sending the link
If you are the one reading this because a supervisor asked what it is: add the job to your own page first, with who to ask listed next to it. When an application wants a finished list, the same page turns into it, with the adult’s name attached to the line. The page written for you is your first job application, and the activities list it feeds starts at your activities list.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as the working papers a minor needs to be hired?
No. In New York, the employment certificate a minor needs before anyone can hire them is issued through the student's own school, not asked of an employer. What this page covers is a separate, informal reference, a short confirmation of what you watched a teenager do, which an application may ask for alongside that legal paperwork or on its own.
Does signing mean I am certifying this legally?
No. Signing records that you saw what you say you saw, in your own words, the same as a verbal reference always did. It is not a legal certification, and no page of ours describes it that way.
What if I only remember roughly how long they worked, not exact dates?
Say that. The line you write is free text, and "most weekends that summer" is a truer answer than guessing exact dates you do not remember.
Do I need to create an account to sign?
No. The link opens straight to the one thing you are being asked to sign. You type your name, your role, and your line, and you are done. Nothing is installed and nothing is remembered on your side unless you choose to sign again for a different teenager.
Can the same teenager ask me again for a different job later?
Yes, with a new link for the new request. There is no standing connection between you and anyone's page beyond what you signed, and no notification asks you to sign anything you were not sent.
What you sign becomes theirs
A scrawled phone number belongs to whichever form it sits on, and most forms get thrown out by the next season. What you sign here does not: the teenager holds the record, not you and not the job you supervised them at, long after that job ends. Your name and your line stay attached to it either way, next to what you said you saw.
See also: a page for your students · signing a student's service hours · the application this feeds