With camp season fast approaching, hundreds of Texas youth camp operators are still waiting to hear if their license will be approved. Following the loss of life at Camp Mystic during the 2025 flood, the state passed sweeping new safety rules for camps.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest changes in the law involves what camps must include in an emergency plan. These plans outline how camps deal with everything from fires, to floods, to serious injury.<\/p>\n
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) licenses and inspects youth camps. Officials with DSHS tell 2 Investigates most camps\u2019 plans submitted under the new law have been sent back for revision. <\/p>\n
There are 363 camps listed on DSHS\u2019s \u201cActive Youth Camp Roster,\u201d as of Apr. 24. Three of those camps show licenses approved through Mar. 2027, 277 camps shows as \u201cApplication Pending\u201d and the remaining camps have licenses expiring within the next couple of months.<\/p>\n
Prior to the new camp laws, DSHS inspectors did not evaluate a camp\u2019s emergency plan, just checked to make sure there was a plan. This year, DSHS is using National EMR out of Schertz, Tx. to help review camps\u2019 emergency plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cNational EMR\u2019s role is limited to administrative review and helps DSHS determine whether plans contain the required components. National EMR does not make final determinations related to camp emergency plan compliance, regulate camps, enforce compliance, or make licensing decisions. Those responsibilities remain solely with DSHS,\u201d DSHS\u2019s Lara Anton wrote in a statement to 2 Investigates.<\/p>\n
The new law also calls for the creation of a multidisciplinary team to create best practices and standards for youth camp emergency plans. However, the law reads that team does not have to meet until Sept. 1. Officials with DSHS said they are still in the process of putting this team together. <\/p>\n
2 Investigates also met with the director of Mt. Lebanon Camp and Conference Center in Cedar Hill, one of the largest camps in the state.<\/p>\n
Eddie Walker is the executive director of Mt. Lebanon and president of the Texas section of the Christian Camp and Conference Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow different is it now from what you\u2019ve had to do in the past?\u201d 2 Investigates Robert Arnold asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think once the preparations are made, it won\u2019t be a whole lot different. There\u2019s some notifications to parents that are different, the ability for parents to respond, and obviously parents want to know when their child comes to camp, are they safe? And you want to communicate that,\u201d said Walker.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the first campers arrive this year, what is going to be different for them and their parents from when they arrived this time last year?\u201d asked Arnold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have training when campers arrive,\u201d said Walker. \u201cParents will have access to our emergency action plan. If they have questions about camp, they\u2019ll be able to go and see what the plan is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mt. Lebanon has been in operation since 1945 and serves approximately 12,000 campers every summer. Walker said the camp\u2019s emergency plan already included much of what the new law requires, but the state sent it back for revision.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it was semantics, some of it was just language that we will do something, they want it to be present tense that it has been done at the point we\u2019re writing it. We\u2019re still putting these processes all into place,\u201d said Walker. \u201cWe\u2019re just getting hit with some new things, like we put in emergency PA speakers across our camp, and they want to know, well, \u2018how would a deaf camper, how is that going to help them, or what are the accommodations for that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker said the camp has already submitted a revised emergency plan. Mt. Lebanon\u2019s experience is indicative of a learning curve camps are facing when implementing Texas\u2019 new camp laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically when we gather camp leaders here, we\u2019ll invite DSHS to come in and say what are the new pool rules, what are new playground rules,\u201d said Walker. \u201cwe were scheduled to have them here in February to address 400 camp leaders who gathered here for Christian Camp Conference Association and they pulled their speakers for that question and answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker said he was told DSHS was not attending for \u201clegal reasons.\u201d DSHS is being sued by several families who lost children at Camp Mystic during the flood. The lawsuit accuses state regulators of not ensuring Camp Mystic had a written flood evacuation plan. <\/p>\n
More than a dozen camps are also suing the state over the new requirement to install fiber optic internet. This new mandate was to help ensure camps had reliable communication during emergencies since many are in remote areas with spotty cell and internet service.<\/p>\n
However, 19 camps that are part of the lawsuit contend the new rule is overly burdensome and too costly since fiber line is not available in all areas. The lawsuit argues the cost to bring fiber line to certain remote areas is far more than the camps can afford and may force the businesses to shut down. <\/p>\n
At the end of March, Camp Oak Haven near Columbus, Tx. announced it was permanently closing because of the new requirement. Former director Riley Watkins told KPRC the cost to bring fiber line to the camp was $280,000, which was 3-times the camp\u2019s annual budget. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With camp season fast approaching, hundreds of Texas youth camp operators are still waiting to hear if their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[71910,51535,99386,5778,3840,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-272237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-camp","tag-dshs","tag-emergency-plan","tag-investigates","tag-license","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}