The closures and cutbacks are the latest ripple effects from new state requirements aimed at preventing another disaster like the July 4 Hill Country flood that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic, according to a report from the Texas Tribune distributed by the Associated Press. As Texas camp operators rush to meet safety mandates and new administrative costs, some are scaling down, some are reducing hours, and others are exiting summer programming altogether.
In Colorado County, Orr Family Ministries said it would not reopen its Camp Oak Haven. The ministry had relocated in 2022 to a 12-acre campground on a hill where about 100 children from surrounding low-income and rural communities could swim, worship by a fire pit, and learn Bible stories. This summer, the ministry instead sold the property because it could not meet sweeping regulations the state placed on the camp industry, board president Cynthia Royal said.
Royal said the impact is not limited to one camp. She described a “dent” in rural communities where families and children do not have enough income to travel to distant “mega camp” options miles away, and she said it is unclear where some of those children will go. She also said church groups were affected and that the closure forced Orr Family Ministries to return deposits.
The changes followed the July 4 Hill Country floods, when Texas lawmakers required youth camps to implement additional safety requirements, including weather warning systems and broadband-related capability, and to pay increased licensing fees. While Texas has pulled back the internet requirement for now, multiple camp directors said the overall regulatory overhaul has already shaken the industry—prompting some previously licensed camps to reduce operations so the state would not need to license them, and contributing to rural camp closures driven by uncertainty.
State officials also said the agreement with 19 camp operators came after months of negotiation, but it was too late for Camp Oak Haven. Texas Department of State Health Services is the state’s licensing body for camps, and the agency said it reached an agreement with the 19 operators that temporarily lifts the fiber-optic internet requirement this summer. Under the deal, camps can still be licensed if they have at least two ways of accessing broadband internet service while meeting the other safety requirements.
Some of the closures remain difficult to quantify, camp operators said, and the state does not track the number of camps that have closed specifically because of the new rules. The AP report said that, compared with the list of active Texas camps in December, 66 camps no longer appeared on the most recent roster updated Friday. It was not clear, the report said, whether those closures were directly tied to the regulations or whether some camps instead scaled back so they would not need state licensing.
Beyond internet access, Royal and other camp leaders pointed to the expense of meeting licensing and safety requirements. Even with a fiber-optic reprieve for this summer, the report said camp directors warned that higher licensing fees, inspection backlogs, and emergency plan rewrites could still force additional closures—particularly for rural organizations that are often nonprofit and operate with limited budgets.
Chris Stephens, a minister at Ave. G Church of Christ in Temple, said he brought youth groups with his four daughters to Camp Oak Haven for several summers. He said his family did not take vacations and viewed camp as important, but he said the children will not attend this summer and that the about-100 other campers are also likely to lose access because few camp options exist in their remote area. He also said low-income families rely on camps so parents can work, leaving fewer alternatives as local offerings are limited and, in some places, summer programs shortened.
The report also described how the regulatory changes have affected camps in Texas metro areas, which tend to operate during daytime hours and are now subject to the same state requirements even though many are designed for overnight, especially rural, settings. Mike McDonell, president of Kidventure, said that while lawmakers wrote the rules to better regulate overnight camps, the state applied them without exceptions and that some requirements do not reflect the realities of urban camps. Camp directors also said they face facility and planning mandates, emergency plan rewrites, and licensing fee increases—costs that fall hard on operators with multiple sites because each location must pay the fee.
Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Department of State Health Services, said some camps may avoid being categorized as youth camps depending on what specialized activities they offer. “If a camp offers only one or no specialized activity, they are not qualified as a youth camp and do not need to be licensed by DSHS,” Anton said, according to the report. Still, other operators said those decisions can shrink or eliminate programming that communities rely on, including activities for children with disabilities and chronic health conditions.
Eddie Walker, executive director of Mt. Lebanon Camp and Retreat in Cedar Hill, said the regulatory approach lacks input from the people who run camps day to day. “It would be like them passing aviation laws without pilot input,” Walker said, adding that lawmakers may not understand the intricacies, training, and experience required to operate safely. For some families and operators, those burdens are becoming harder to absorb as lawmakers plan to revisit camp safety standards during next year’s legislative session, with camp directors saying they want lawmakers to consider feedback grounded in how camps actually function.
Even with the fiber-optic settlement, Stephens and others said the loss of Camp Oak Haven cannot be undone. Stephens said the relationships formed at camp—including friendships, marriages, and people who turned to ministry because of the program—will not be present anymore, and he said “there will never be another Camp Oak Haven.”