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We discovered that California camps are not required by state law to offer critical child protections. Most other states are similar.
We demand licensing requirements!
We demand inspections!
We demand background and reference checks!
We demand health supervisors!
We demand certifications for high-risk activities, including gun ranges with live ammo, zip-lines, high ropes courses, sheer rock wall climbing, tomahawk throwing, archery, horseback riding, aquatics, ATVs, etc.!
We demand Emergency Action Plans!
We demand expanded mandatory reporters!
We demand child care development training!
We demand reporting and consequences for preventable harm!
Elena Matyas outside CA Governor Newsom’s office where she and Doug Forbes met with senior staff about camp oversight. Photo: Doug Forbes
California Lieutenant Governor’s office where Elena Matyas and Doug Forbes met with senior officials. Photo: Doug Forbes
Sen. Anthony Portantino joins Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas as they introduce SB 955, Meow Meow Foundation’s first camp safety bill.
Elena Matyas walks into the CA Department of Social Services where she and Doug Forbes met with senior officials to discuss why CDSS regulates child care operations but not camps. Photo: Doug Forbes
2023: Meow Meow Foundation Pushes Third Camp Safety Bill
AB 262 Attempts to Have the Department of Social Services Oversee Camps Like Other Child Care Operations.
This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to convene and consult with a stakeholder group on children’s camp safety. The bill would require the stakeholder group to be composed of representatives of designated state entities, including, but not limited to, the State Department of Public Health and the State Department of Education and other stakeholders, such as parent advocate groups, children’s advocates and safety groups, and local parks and health departments. The bill would require the department, by June 1, 2025, to issue its recommendations, as informed by the stakeholder group, in a report to the Legislature. The bill would require the recommendations to address, among other things, a definition for a children’s camp, child supervision requirements, requirements for camp licensure and regulation, and the government agency or agencies necessary to establish and enforce rules and regulations relating to children’s camps, as specified. The bill would require the report to include costs estimates for implementation of the recommendations included in the report.
2022: Meow Meow Foundation Passes Landmark Legislation in the Nation’s Largest County
Los Angeles County passes Drowning Prevention and Camp Safety Laws.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a package of ordinances to enhance regulations for children's camps and prevent drownings. The camp safety ordinance, known as the "Elena Matyas Children's Camp Safety Ordinance," establishes feasible and enforceable regulations with requirements for the health and safety of children at children's day camps and children's overnight camps. It institutes fees for the issuance of a public health permit or registration. Without this ordinance, day camps would continue operating without CPR training, background checks, and staffing ratios. The drowning prevention ordinance, known as the “Roxie’s Swim Safe Ordinance,” will expand lifeguard requirements to certain public and private swimming pools and swimming areas. It requires aquatic safety plans and imposes requirements on pool owners and operators to report drownings and other incidents. "I want to extend my sincere gratitude to Doug Forbes who, with his wife Elena, founded the Meow Meow Foundation after their daughter Roxie tragically drowned while at summer camp exactly three years ago today. Their tireless advocacy for change is what motivated me to address regulatory gaps in children’s camps and drowning prevention,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis, a former Obama Secretary of Labor.
Read Roxie’s Swim Safe Ordinance Read Elena Matyas Camp Safety Ordinance
2022: Meow Meow Foundation Introduces Second Camp Safety Bill
AB 1737 streamlined original version of pivotal camp safety bill.
Supported by the Beau Biden Foundation, Los Angles Unified School District (the nation’s second largest district), Los Angeles County (the nation’s largest county), the American Academy of Pediatrics-CA and others, this streamlined bill attempted to help prevent sexual and physical harm at camps. AB 1737 affected millions of kids at thousands of camps and paved the way to long overdue federal regulation, a fight that began 50 years ago. Yet again, lobbyists and legislators gutted the bill to where it offered no meaningful protections. The wholly amended version of the measure also favored the camp lobby instead of at-risk kids. Meow Meow Foundation had no other option but to oppose the very bill it introduced. California remains one of a handful of states that does not oversee day camps while offering anemic, unenforced oversight of overnight camps.
2021: Meow Meow Foundation Passes State Resolution on Drowning Prevention
This measure proclaims every 3rd week of May as “Roxie’s Wish: Drowning Prevention Week for Children” in order to encourage counties, cities, and school districts to support national goals relating to drowning prevention. The measure will also, among other things, support the goals and ideals of National Water Safety Month, support publicly acknowledging, with permission, the names of drowning victims and their families, and encourage counties, cities, and school districts to adopt codes and standards to prevent drowning and engage in and encourage public awareness campaigns.
2021: Meow Meow Foundation Introduces Water Safety Bill
The bill would require the State Department of Public Health, in cooperation with the State Department of Education and other specified entities, to develop an aquatic and pool safety program to be made available for use at local educational agencies, defined as school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that serve pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, as a model policy at no expense to the local educational agencies. The bill would require the model policy, among other things, to be age appropriate, to address the needs of groups at a higher risk of drowning, and to include specified training materials.
2021: Meow Meow Foundation Introduces First Camp Safety Bill
On February 10, 2020, Meow Meow Foundation introduced SB 955, The Roxie Rules Act. The Act eventually became SB 217 due to legislative changes during the height of COVID-19. The bill honored Roxie Mirabelle Forbes who drowned at Summerkids Camp due to gross negligence.
Meow Meow Foundation pulled the bill in May of 2020 due to the fact that lobbyists and camp gatekeepers were influencing legislators to dilute the bill in a way that would harm children. The foundation vowed to return in 2022 with new legislation that every child and family deserves.
Opposition to Licensing Day Camps
These health and safety organizations have rejected measures to keep kids safe. Click the links and read the opposition statements from organizations that, by the current organized camp law, are supposed to be overseeing camps but are acting “contrary to the law,” which means that they are not holding up their legal obligations.
The County Health Executives Association of California
Multiple County Health Officers Lobby in Opposition
Failed Camp Safety Legislation Efforts
The Original Children and Youth Camp Safety Act introduced by Walter Mondale in 1975
2008: CA Department of Health Services issues notice of proposed rule-making to update Organized Camp Regulations which coincided with an update of the American Camp Association’s Accreditation Standards. California Collaboration for Youth wanted to define Organized Day Camps in the regulations but counsel determined that a statutory change must be made. The effort was abandoned.
1997, AB-153: Introduced on behalf of the organized camp community, it intended to 1.) define Organized Day Camps; 2.) address discriminatory and arbitrary fees which were being charged to organized camps for use of public land, public beaches and public recreation areas; and 3.) clarify that ttransportation provided by organized camps qualified to be registered as “Private Carriers” rather than Charter-Party Carriers. Objectives 2 and 3 were achieved but objective 1 was defeated by health departments.
1988, SB-1618: Deleted the Department of Social Services’ discretionary exemption authority over exempted organized camps prompting the Department of Environmental Health to start examining the difference between organized camps generally, organized day camps specifically, and day care centers.