Sending Your Child to Camp | Navigate Life Texas

Imagine a day where your child is making new friends, singing camp songs, and playing outside. They feel included. They’re well cared for. They’re trying new things. And you’re off doing something else while this happens.

For many parents of children with disabilities or special health care needs, this vision might seem impossible. After all, how could your child be safe without you? How could you find a camp that would support them?

But they do exist. There are different types of camps that support children and adults with disabilities and special health care needs, places where they can learn, grow, and just have a good time.

Why Go to Camp?

Camp is a lot of fun. During the games, songs, and group activities, children learn new skills. They can solve problems, practice being social with their peers, and build up their confidence.

And it’s also a good way for your child to build independence by practicing what it’s like when you’re not in charge of every part of their care.

As parent Rosemary Alexander said, “I believe in the process of letting go of our children with disabilities, and I think that sending them to summer camp is a great way to start!” You can read more of her experience in Going to Camp: A Conversation about Letting Go.

On top of all these benefits, camp might also be the first place where children with disabilities or special health care needs get to:

Meet other children with disabilities like theirs.
Safely practice making their own choices.
Practice social skills and bond with other children.
Learn to work in groups.
Be outside in nature.

It’s often hard for children with disabilities or special health care needs to get these experiences in their everyday lives. They might not meet other children with the same diagnosis in their school or town. And school is structured and scheduled in a different way than camp, usually without as many choices.

Camp is a chance for your child to grow. Building independence isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s a step-by-step process. Camp gives you and your child a chance to start with 1 or 2 days apart, then a week, and then more as you are both ready for it.

Camp also gives parents a much-needed respite. Maybe that’s chance to spend time alone – or with your partner, other children, or friends.

Kinds of Camps

There are different kinds of camps that might serve children with disabilities or special health care needs. Some are overnight camps for a week or more during the summer or on school breaks. Some are day camps. And others are weekend camps during the school year.

If your child hasn’t gone to camp before, starting with a day camp or weekend camp is a good way to test the waters and see how you and your child do. Some places also offer family camps – you can try it out together before your child goes on their own.

Finding a Camp

There are 2 main types of camps: inclusionary (or mainstream) camps and camps designed just for children with disabilities or special health care needs.

Inclusionary (or mainstream) camps include children with disabilities or special health care needs along with typically developing campers. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires camps to make reasonable accommodations for children with disabilities and special health care needs. So you and your child might be able to find camps that match their interests and meet their needs too—from classic summer camp to science camps at NASA or an aquarium.

Some camps make sure to give their staff special training. Camps run by organizations like the YMCA, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire, and some religious groups often train their staff to work with children with disabilities or special health care needs.

If you’re thinking about sending your child to a mainstream camp, check on what day-to-day accommodations the camp can give. Although the camp may make ADA-required accommodations, not all camps will have staff trained to meet your child’s needs. See our section below on finding out if a camp is right for your child.

There are also day and overnight (sleepaway) camps especially for children with certain disabilities or special health care needs. Some of them are:

Here are some ways to find other camps in your area:

Search on Camp For All for camps that serve children with certain disabilities or special health care needs.
Look on the American Camp Association (ACA) Find A Camp website. You can search for camps for children with disabilities or special health care needs or for inclusionary camps.
Connect with other parents to find camps that have worked for their children.
Search our Services, Groups, and Events page.
Talk to your child’s doctor. They might know about summer camps for children with your child’s diagnosis.
Search online for camps designed for children with your child’s disability or special health care needs.

Is the Camp Right for My Child?

Here are some ways to find out if a camp will be right for your child:

Consider if your child will think it’s interesting. Having your child help pick their camp is a big step in finding the right one.
Visit the camp, if possible.
Talk to the camp director in person or on the phone. Be very open, honest, and detailed about your child’s needs and behaviors. Ask what kind of plan they could put in place to meet those needs. If the camp can’t support your child, it’s better to know before your child goes.
Ask the camp director how they train their staff on helping children with personal care, hygiene, and behavior management. Feel free to ask about things like bathroom care or the number of staff members available per child.
Ask the camp director for examples of how they’ve handled times when children don’t like camp or don’t follow the rules.
If the camp doesn’t have trained staff that can meet your child’s needs, ask if there’s a way for you to send a helper to be part of the staff. See our page on finding activities that work for your child for tips so that helper can blend in.
The ACA has very high standards for camp safety and staff training. Look on their Find A Camp to see if the camp has ACA accreditation (meaning that it meets ACA rules).
See if the camp is licensed by the state of Texas.
Ask for names of parents who have sent their children to the camp in the past and how to contact them. You can call or email to get their thoughts on the camp.

Preparing for Camp

To get your child (and you) ready for camp, there’s a lot of packing and preparing. And there’s some important paperwork that you can get together to send with the camp application. (Once you gather it, you can keep it in a care notebook to use later too.)

Other parents have said that it’s a good idea to include:

A one-page medical history.
A list of your child’s medications.
A description of a day in the life of your child–and all the steps in their care.
A list of behaviors and any behavior management tools and techniques.
A current physical exam.
Contact information for your child’s doctor and case manager (if they have one).
Insurance and/or Medicaid information, if they have it.

It’s also tricky to get yourself, your child, and your family ready to let your child go to camp. See our blog post by a camp director on Getting the Most Out of Camp for tips.

Making a Communication Plan

One of the challenges about sending your child to camp is that you can’t see them or talk to them every day. If you want a way to keep track of how your child is doing, and make sure their medical needs are being met, you can talk to the camp about staying in touch about important things.

One way to do this is to make a communication plan with the camp director on how to share information while your child is at camp. Remember that the camp counselors are taking care of a lot of children, so the plan needs to be simple, easy, and work for both your family and the camp staff too.

Before your child goes to camp, here are some questions you can answer for them:

What are your child’s daily medical needs?
How will the camp know whether your child is or isn’t doing okay? (For example, blood sugar measurements, urine measurements, behavior.)
Does your child show certain behaviors if they are in distress or not feeling well? If so, what should the camp do if they see those behaviors?
How will the camp make sure each counselor in charge of your child knows how to tell that your child is doing okay?

Here are some important things you might want to include in your communication plan:

What exactly does the camp need to tell you and how often?
At what point does the camp need to contact you? What is an emergency?
How will they contact you?

While you can also talk to your child about how you might be able to reach each other if you really need to, you’ll want to be sure the plan you have with the camp is in writing and that all staff agree to and sign off on it. That way, everyone is on the same page.

Getting Help Paying for Camp

Camp can be expensive. Here are a few ways that other parents have found to get help paying for camp:

Many camps that serve children with disabilities and special health care needs, such as Camp CAMP or Camp Summit, offer scholarships or will have a range of fees that match different families’ incomes. Lions Camp is free for all its campers.
Some Medicaid waiver programs have out-of-home respite funds that can be used to pay for approved camps. If a camp is registered with the waiver program, they can help you get these funds.
If your family creates a personal budget each year, think about adding the cost of camp to it.
Some local mental health authorities places that offer mental health services might pay for camp if your child is getting other services from them.
Ask your child’s principal or special education teacher to help you apply for Non-educational Community Support Services funds to pay for camp. These are for children who are in residential care, at risk of going into residential care, or coming home from residential care.
Local organizations might have scholarships for camp if you apply early enough. See our page on funding and grants for more ideas.
Connect with other parents for other tips.

It’s never too early to start thinking about camp. Most summer camps put their applications on their websites by the end of January and fill up fast. So, even when it’s a rare cold day in Texas, it’s time to think about camp.

Allowing your child the freedom to go to camp on their own might be their first taste of independence. They get a chance to see what the world looks like outside their own home or school. It might help them feel like it’s okay to try new things. That’s an important step in the process of growing up and transitioning to adulthood. Camp is one way to help your whole family get a picture of what this will look like and start building that independence early.