Following pressure from summer camp operators, lawmakers and legislative leaders, Texas is suspending a requirement that all camps install “end-to-end” fiber-optic internet infrastructure before opening this summer.
What you need to know
After catastrophic flooding in Central Texas killed more than 130 people—including 28 deaths at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp—last July, state lawmakers passed a pair of laws designed to strengthen safety and emergency preparedness requirements for all Texas summer camps.
The camp safety laws, House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, require camp operators to develop and annually update comprehensive emergency plans; set up warning systems to notify campers if something is wrong; and install two types of broadband internet, including a fiber-optic system. Some camps have contested the fiber-optic requirement, arguing it would be “impossible” to get the service in rural and remote areas of the state.
Nineteen camp operators sued the state over that rule in April, although they did not contest other safety requirements. The Texas Department of State Health Services, which inspects and licenses youth camps, said it reached an agreement May 7 with the 19 camps.
“This agreement will ensure that youth camps in Texas operate with the safety provisions envisioned by the Legislature while allowing camps and families to move forward with their summer plans,” DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford said in a statement.
Under the agreement, Texas camps that maintain “redundant” broadband internet services will not have their license revoked or denied as long as they meet all other safety requirements, the DSHS said in a May 7 news release. Redundant internet infrastructure includes “cellular, microwave or satellite” broadband technology, the agency said.
As of May 8, DSHS records show that:
- 18 camps are licensed through early 2027 and approved to operate this summer
- 70 camps have licenses expiring sometime this summer
- 239 camps are seeking to renew their licenses this summer and have pending applications
Under state law, any camp with a pending application will not see their license expire as they go through the renewal process, DSHS officials told state lawmakers
during an April 30 hearing.
More details
The May 7 agreement between the state health department and camp operators pauses the lawsuit and court case until March 1, 2027. Lawmakers have said they will take another look at camp safety standards during next year’s state legislative session, which begins in January.
“[We] recognize that there may be means other than fiber to provide reliable redundant internet access, which would satisfy the purpose and spirit of the law,” Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a May 5 joint statement. “The upcoming 90th Legislative Session will provide an opportunity to further strengthen camp safety standards while ensuring camps operating in good faith under these new requirements can continue to serve Texas children and families.”
Ed Walker, president of the Texas Christian Camp and Conference Association and director of Mt. Lebanon Camp in Cedar Hill, called the agreement a “happy victory” but said “much damage [was] already done” by the fiber-optic rule.
“Millions spent by camps to get it & long, very expensive contracts,” Walker said in a May 7 post on X, adding that legislators had “a lot left to fix” with the camp safety laws.
Some context
In an April 7 lawsuit, 19 camp operators from across Texas said installing fiber-optic internet infrastructure was “so costly as to make it economically infeasible or unreasonably burdensome,” which they said could prevent camps from opening. The camps wrote that fiber-optic services are “not available at all” in some remote areas, noting that Texas’ camp safety laws do not include exceptions for rural camps.
According to the lawsuit, Camp Longhorn, which has three locations in Burnet, received a quote of more than $1.2 million to install fiber-optic internet at two of its camps. In East Texas, Camp Liberty received multiple quotes, ranging from $43,200 to over $1 million.
Austin Sunshine Camps was told that due to a “lack of facilities” within 30 miles of its Lake Travis camp, its internet service provider could not provide fiber-optic service, the lawsuit reads.
In a May 2 letter obtained by Community Impact, Austin Sunshine Camps CEO Erica Blue asked camp stakeholders to reach out to their local lawmakers to request that the fiber-optic requirement be put on pause. Blue sent an update to families May 6, telling them that the camp would open on schedule this summer under the updated broadband rules.
“Austin Sunshine Camps operates with dependable, redundant communication systems that support daily operations and emergency response,” she wrote. “These systems are trusted, proven, and central to how we care for and protect our campers. Their safety has always been our highest priority, and it always will be.”
After the May 7 fiber-optic agreement was announced, state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, called it “a good outcome for Texas summer camps” and “bad for [legislative] precedent.”
“The actual text of the bills we pass should mean something,” Leach wrote on X. “We have other avenues to fix unintended consequences. And as painful as those avenues might be, being told what we intended or planned or meant to do instead of what we actually did should never be an acceptable option.”
