Tools to help plan for summer programs

Summer during COVID will not look like the summers of the past, but parents will still need safe, supervised places for their kids to go as they return to work and children will still need enrichment, recreation and time outdoors.  Fortunately, national organizations and states have been thinking about how to operate camps safely during the pandemic.

Below we summarize some of the major policies and guidance for summer camp opening and operations, and for those looking for a more in-depth scan of the specific policies across state and national guidance, please see our corresponding Short Policy Brief: Tools for Summer Planning.

On May 18, the American Camp Association (ACA) in Partnership with the YMCA of the USA and Environmental Health and Engineering Inc, published a field guide for camps in early May. And shortly thereafter, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released guidance for youth and summer camps, that had been leaked in late April but held back until a final release in May 2020 as part of a larger document on Camps, Schools and Child Care Centers.

These pieces of guidance outline important policies such as preparing the camps to receive youth, keeping spaces clean and sanitized, training and communicating with staff, campers, and families about safety measures and procedures, daily health screenings, meals, transportation, supplies and equipment, and communication with local health officials. A major consideration is the need for emotional support for campers, helping staff to appropriately and developmentally communicate with young people about COVID, their fears, misconceptions and how to stay healthy and well.

Common across all plans is the use of a cohort, small-group, stable group or “household” model that keeps low ratios of campers and staff (often in the range of 5 campers to 1 staff) in unchanging groups and spaces to minimize exposure to large populations and contain contacts in the event a person contracts the COVID Virus. Another is the additional needs for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and cleaning and sanitization supplies, which often need to increase 50 to 100 percent over prior years.

State plans often have many of the same elements suggested in the national guidance, but also as may be expected, have levels of variation in how the policies are being applied as well as what additional areas to touch upon.

For example, state policies on where and when to use masks, whether to bring food from home or eat meals prepared on-site, the exact group size within a cohort, transportation, full day vs half-day offerings, and whether or not to permit students from outside the local areas in the early phrases of re-opening vary.

The variation in states provides some additional areas to consider including:

• Ensuring communications with parents and families are linguistically and culturally appropriate
• Training staff to recognize and report child care abuse and neglect (as reporting has reduced significantly since the emergency declaration)
• Working with vulnerable staff to ensure they are protected and supported in how they choose to engage in their summer work

For many youth, summer may be one of the first steps in rejoining with peers, and might provide a good window to see how groups can come together with supportive safety guidance, including as a lead up as schools begin their re-opening plans, often with hybrid learning models of on-site and off-site learning, for the coming school year.

From what we have seen so far in discussions on school re-opening, states and think tanks are recognizing that the need for a broad and inclusive range of partners and policies to meet the full suite of academic, social and emotional needs of students.

State re-opening task forces are beginning to invite Statewide Afterschool Networks to the table to help plan for recovery, helping parents get back to work and students re-engage and re-connect. The American Institutes for Research has begun to summarize some of the reopening visions being set out by national groups, and fortunately but not surprisingly, each one has a space for whole child support which will require strong partnerships. We will continue to follow these plans as re-opening continues.