How to Fill Out ICS Form 226: Ratings, Remarks, and Routing

To fill out ICS Form 226, the Individual Performance Rating, the immediate supervisor completes the header identifying the rated person and the incident, marks each listed duty on a five-level performance scale, writes remarks for any rating below Fully Successful, reviews the form face-to-face with the subordinate, obtains both signatures, and hands the completed form to the Planning Section Chief before leaving the incident.¹

The 226 is a legacy wildfire-community form. Agencies following the current FEMA standard now use ICS Form 225, which covers the same ground with a slightly different scale and layout.² If your agency handed you a 225 instead, the workflow below still applies.

Before You Start

The person with direct knowledge of the work writes the evaluation. That is the immediate supervisor under the ICS span of control on this incident, not a home-agency manager and not a remote headquarters. The sources do not require a specific certification level for the evaluator beyond holding the supervisory role on the incident.¹

Home-agency rank does not change who rates whom. A GS-13 working under a GS-9 Division Supervisor on the fire gets rated by that GS-9, because the ICS hierarchy governs the evaluation relationship.

Timing is tight. The form must be completed before the rater leaves the incident, so waiting until demobilization is a real risk.³

If you don’t have a copy, the ICS 226 (NFES 2074) is available as a PDF through the USDA Forest Service and various Geographic Area Coordination Center websites.⁴ FEMA and NWCG portals no longer list the 226; they carry the 225 and 225 WF.² In the field, the Planning Section or your own supervisor typically hands you a paper copy.

Filling In the Header

The top of the form ties the rating to the right person and the right incident. Complete these fields:

Name of the individual being rated, in full.
Incident Name as officially assigned (for example, “Willow Creek Fire”).
Incident Number from the dispatching agency or coordination center.
Position Held using the official NWCG position title (Single Resource Boss, Task Force Leader, Incident Meteorologist), not an informal description.
Date(s) of Assignment the individual served on the incident.

The position title matters more than it looks. Ratings follow the individual into their qualification records, and one filed under the wrong title is effectively useless for showing experience in the position the person actually filled.

Rating Each Duty

The body of the form lists specific duties tied to the position. Mark one column per duty using the ICS 226 scale:¹

Did Not Apply on This Incident — the duty was not relevant to the assignment. Use this rather than leaving a blank.
Unacceptable — did not meet minimum requirements. Requires a written explanation in Remarks.
Need to Improve — met some requirements but fell short in identifiable areas. Remarks should specify what needs work.
Fully Successful — met all expectations for the duty.
Exceeds Successful — consistently went beyond what the position required.

On the newer ICS 225, the same concepts run on a 1-through-5 numeric scale (Unacceptable through Exceeded Expectations) with N/A for duties that did not apply.⁵

Writing Remarks That Hold Up

The Remarks section is where a rating either survives review or falls apart. Any Unacceptable or Need to Improve rating requires a written explanation. This is not optional.⁵

Describe what happened in concrete terms. “Failed to maintain radio contact during Division Alpha burnout operations on 7/14” is useful. “Needs improvement in communication” is not.

For Fully Successful and Exceeds Successful ratings, remarks are not strictly required, but adding them strengthens the record, especially for someone building experience toward a higher qualification. A sentence or two about incident complexity, terrain, or resource limitations gives a training officer real context when the evaluation is reviewed later. A blank Remarks section on an otherwise glowing rating tends to read as a rushed form.

Signing and Routing the Completed Form

After the ratings and remarks are done, the supervisor reviews the form face-to-face with the subordinate. The rated individual then signs and dates the form, and the supervisor signs as well. The subordinate’s signature confirms the evaluation was discussed with them, not that they agree with every rating.¹

The completed form produces three copies: the original goes to the supervisor, with copies to the trainee and the trainee specialist if applicable.³ The completed rating is then given to the Planning Section Chief before the rater leaves the incident.⁴ From there, the form becomes part of the incident documentation package and eventually reaches the individual’s home agency to update qualification and training records.

Keep the Rating Inside the Routing Chain

A completed 226 contains personal information: names, home unit addresses, and a detailed assessment of an individual’s capabilities. When a federal agency maintains these records in a system of records, the Privacy Act restricts disclosure without the individual’s written consent, subject to statutory exceptions.⁶

In practice, do not share a subordinate’s completed rating with other crew members, post it, or send it to anyone outside the established routing chain. The form goes to the Planning Section Chief and the rated individual’s home agency. If a request comes in from outside that chain, send it to your agency’s privacy officer or records manager.

1
National Interagency Coordination Center. ICS Form 226 Individual Performance Rating
2
Federal Emergency Management Agency. ICS Resource Center – ICS Forms
3
National Interagency Fire Center. ICS Form 226 – Individual Performance Rating
4
USDA Forest Service. Interagency Buying Team Guide Exhibit 14 ICS 226 Individual Performance Rating
5
Federal Emergency Management Agency. ICS 225 Incident Personnel Performance Rating
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 552a – Records Maintained on Individuals