I-Team: Summer Camp Loophole Could Put Children's Safety At Risk
BOSTON (CBS) - It may only be January but many parents are starting to line up their plans for the summer. As camps start filling up, the I-Team takes a closer look at a loophole that could put your children's safety at risk.
A chance to improve their skills and have fun is the goal behind the sports camps run by the John Smith Soccer School.
But that's not the only thing that's important to Camp Director Felicity Smith-Day.
"The health and safety and well-being of our campers is our number one priority," she says.
The camp follows a 32 page list of regulations issued by the state Department of Public Health.
"We are required to do CORI checks, which are criminal history background checks," she says.
The regulations also require:
- Sex offender background checks
- Medical histories for campers
- Immunization histories for staff
- A doctor to oversee health care procedures
- Traffic plan for all of locations
But here's what many parents don't know. Change 'camp' to a four-day 'clinic' and all that changes.
"As far as clinics, they don't have to meet regulations because they don't fall under the definition of a camp," says Lenny Izzo of the Wellesley Board of Health.
All camps in Wellesley have to register with Izzo to make sure they are following all of those regulations. But clinics don't have to check with him or anyone else.
"I think it's worth being looked at on a state level to see if there is a gap," Izzo said.
Jane Newman of Milford says her sons have done clinics and she always assumed the rules were the same.
"I think it's absurd," Newman says. "I'm shocked that these people aren't being CORI'd and their whole background dug through. And they should be. They are working with kids."
There have been some efforts on Beacon Hill to limit which programs are exempt from the regulations but so far, they have not passed.
Communities can pass their own requirements and some clinics go above and beyond what the law dictates.
In the end it's up to parents to ask.
