Estimated Time to Read: 7 minutes
The devastating Hill Country floods of July 2025 took the lives of 137 people, including 27 children and young adults at Camp Mystic. The tragedy shook Texas and left families and communities grieving. The loss of life should never be minimized, and the pain experienced by the families affected is something every Texan holds close. As Texas charts its path forward, the shared desire to protect children must remain at the center of the conversation.
Yet the state’s response to an act of God now risks creating a different kind of devastation. The proposed licensing fee increases and regulatory changes put forward by the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) would fundamentally reshape youth camping in Texas. Many of the operators most dedicated to child safety, especially small nonprofit camps, warn that they may not survive the new model that combines costly requirements with unprecedented fee hikes.
The challenge is not the pursuit of safety. The challenge is the scale, cost, and rigidity of the mandates Texas is considering at a moment when camps are already struggling from flood damage, rising insurance costs, and inflation. Safety policy must be proportional, and regulations must account for the financial realities of the very institutions they aim to improve.
Proposed Texas Licensing Fees Increase as Much as 4,000 Percent
The Department of State Health Services has proposed a dramatic revision of licensing fees for youth camps. Residential camps that currently pay a renewal fee of roughly $464 per year could soon pay as much as $19,500. Startup fees that previously cost between $250 and $750 could climb to $3,500 for day camps and up to $21,000 for large residential camps.
These increases are intended to support expanded oversight and enforcement responsibilities, particularly those created by Senate Bill 1, the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, which lawmakers passed in the second special legislative session earlier this year. However, camp operators warn that these fee jumps would be financially impossible to absorb. Many Texas youth camps are small nonprofits that serve children from across the state at modest tuition levels. Unlike large commercial resorts, they operate on thin margins and direct most of their revenue toward programming, facilities, and staff.
For rural camps or those located on legacy properties, the proposed fee structure poses a severe risk. Camps cannot readily increase tuition without pricing out the very families they serve, and they cannot raise millions of dollars overnight to meet new compliance expectations. The result could be widespread closures rather than improved safety.
SB 1 Rules Add Significant New Burdens
The proposed fees arrive at the same moment SB 1 introduces sweeping new requirements for floodplain compliance, emergency planning, and infrastructure upgrades. Many of these mandates are now integrated into the licensing process itself under the final bill language.
Camps must now submit annual emergency plans, maintain muster zones, install independent PA systems, illuminate evacuation routes, train staff, and provide detailed documents to both the state and emergency management officials. They must also deliver emergency plans to parents and secure written acknowledgement that facilities within a floodplain have been disclosed.
Some requirements are understandable in light of recent events. Parents deserve clarity, and camps should be equipped to respond when emergencies arise, but other mandates, like the required installation of dual broadband Internet connections, including end-to-end fiber, have little connection to flood safety and are completely unattainable for remote operators. Camps have reported quotes of over $1 million for fiber installation, a cost that would close their doors long before any safety improvements could be realized.
When stacked alongside a licensing hike that multiplies annual fees by factors of twenty, forty, or even more, the challenge becomes insurmountable.
Floodplain Mandates Challenge Hill Country Camps
The floodplain restrictions in SB 1 present another layer of difficulty for long-standing camps. The law prohibits the licensing of camps with cabins located in FEMA’s 100-year floodplain unless narrow exceptions are met. Cabins that were safely operated for decades can fall within a floodplain not because conditions have changed, but because FEMA maps are administratively updated. Camps could be denied licenses or forced to rebuild structurally sound cabins without any compensation or opportunity to seek a variance.
During the legislative process, operators in Kerr County warned that the cost of rebuilding cabins would reach into the millions. Even worse, camps would not be allowed to continue operating during the rebuild, cutting off revenue required to complete the upgrades. The combined effect would be closures that spill into multiple seasons, harming families, campers, employees, and the local economy.
The emotional weight of the July tragedy must never be ignored. Families lost children, counselors lost friends, and entire communities were forever changed, but public policy must strike a balance between honoring that loss and preserving the very institutions that give Texas children a place to grow, heal, and build confidence. Texas camps carry a century of history and have shaped generations of young Texans. Losing them would create wounds of a different kind, affecting families across the state.
Economic Impact of New Camp Regulations
Texas youth camps are estimated to contribute more than $4 billion to the state economy each year. In places like Kerr County, the local economy depends heavily on camp employment, vendor contracts, lodging, and tourism tied to summer sessions.
The proposed fee hikes and regulatory burdens will not only harm camp operators. They will affect local stores, outfitters, restaurants, bus drivers, maintenance crews, and college students who rely on seasonal work. They will affect property tax bases and reduce opportunities for rural economic growth. They will affect families who depend on camp scholarships or rely on summer programs while parents work.
The ripple effect of closures would be significant and long-lasting.
Why Texas Should Avoid Reactionary Regulation After an Act of God
The Hill Country floods were a catastrophic natural disaster that struck with overwhelming force and left families and entire communities devastated. As Texans continue to mourn the lives lost, it is important to recognize that the event itself was driven by extreme weather far beyond anyone’s control. In moments like these, the desire for action is understandable, yet policy responses must be careful and measured. Texas should avoid allowing the aftermath of an act of God to become the basis for overregulation that unintentionally harms long-standing institutions and the families who rely on them.
Policy decisions made in the aftermath of tragedies often grow from a place of empathy and urgency, but they can also carry unintended consequences when they treat all operators as equally at fault or equally positioned to bear major costs.
Safety should never be ignored, and Texas camps agree. Many worked closely with lawmakers throughout both special sessions earlier this year, but meaningful safety reform looks different from reactionary mandates that threaten to remake an entire industry through regulation and fees.
Texas should encourage thoughtful risk management, local judgment, and collaboration, not centralized directives that overpower the diversity of camp settings and suppress the personal responsibility that camp operators have demonstrated for generations.
A Path Forward That Protects Children Without Closing Camps
Lawmakers and regulators still have opportunities to recalibrate. The Legislature can revisit portions of SB 1 through targeted amendments. The Department of State Health Services can revise the final licensing fee schedule before implementation. Texas can consider financial support, grant programs, or phased compliance that recognize the real costs of the new requirements.
Parents want safety. Camps want to protect children. Communities want trusted institutions to remain open. These goals can coexist.
Texas should embrace policies that prevent future tragedies without forcing nonprofit camps, religious camps, and rural operators to shut their doors.
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