Each camp is required to ensure that each camper’s health information is documented! Parents and guardians need to be sure to provide the camp with the child’s up-to-date health history and immunization records.  Health histories document potential allergies and other issues of concern important for responding to an emergency. Immunization records can be obtained from your family physician, the New Jersey Immunization Information System (NJIIS) or you may be able to get the information directly from your child’s school nurse!  These documents help health center staff assess your child in the unfortunate case that he/she becomes ill or injured while on-site at the youth camp. Be sure to provide these documents to your camp. Providing these documents will go a long way in protecting the broader camp community!

• From 2005-2014, there were an average of 3,536 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — about ten deaths per day. An additional 332 people die each year from drowning in boating-related incidents.
  
  
• About one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger. For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.
  
  
• More than 50% of drowning victims treated in emergency departments (EDs) require hospitalization or transfer for further care (compared with a hospitalization rate of about 6% for all unintentional injuries). These nonfatal drowning injuries can cause severe brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities such as memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning (e.g., permanent vegetative state).

Prevention Tips

• Swimming skills help. Taking part in formal swimming lessons reduces the risk of drowning among children aged 1 to 4 years.
• Learn Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
• Life jackets can reduce risk
• Supervise When in or Around Water
• Use the Buddy System

CDC Unintentional Drowning: Get the Facts

Field trips are a special treat for every camper!  To ensure the safety of the children while away from the designated campsite the New Jersey Youth Camp Safety Standards require that camps provide the following on out-of-camp trips:

• Provide a copy of the written parental consent for emergency medical treatment to accompany each camper on all off-site trips

Please help your camp by providing the forms for emergency treatment of your child if they should sustain an injury or become ill while on a field trip. 

Ask about methods of transportation and how field trips are managed. Will camp members split into groups? How do group supervisors/chaperones communicate with each other? What is the adult-to-child ratio? Is there a buddy system? What is the protocol for a lost camper?

📝 Safe and Sound Schools Summer Camp Safety Checklist

The protection of a camper is of primary concern.  Over 9% of abductions are committed by a family member in a custodial dispute¹. Keeping our kids safe is a collective responsibility that will take teamwork between the Department, provider, and camp families to keep the lines of communication open. 

To keep your child safe New Jersey Youth Camp Safety Standards require that camps implement the following procedures for the safe pick-up and drop-off of campers:

• The camp director shall establish a written policy in which preschool campers shall only be discharged from a vehicle to the custody of a designated person
  
  
• The camp director shall obtain from each parent or guardian in writing the name(s) of the person(s) to whom the youth camp can discharge the camper. Help your camp by keeping this list current!
  
  
• The camp director shall ensure that the youth camp establishes and maintains a record of the bus driver’s transportation routes and driver information.
  
  
• Campers shall never be left unattended in a bus or vehicle

¹Polly Klas Foundation. http://www.pollyklaas.org/about/national-child-kidnapping.html (Accessed April 2021)