How to know if your child’s camp is licensed

In May the scramble for a summer camp starts, and almost nobody asks the one thing that matters: is this licensed? This 2016 Act moved that process to Recreation and Sports — the Family Department used to do it, and that is confusion number one — and left three things a parent can check without being a lawyer: the licence has to be hung where it can be seen, the camp has to carry its registration number, and DRD publishes online the list of the camps it licensed. It also set who may work there, and there the Act is hard: nobody with a felony conviction, and everyone — employees and volunteers alike — goes through a health certificate, a penal record and the sex-offender and child-protection registries.

The Act reaches further than people assume. Article 3: it applies “to every natural or juridical person that intends to operate or operates, for profit or not for profit, a public or private camp.” Not-for-profit included: a church, a community association or a social entity running a camp is inside. And Article 9 extends the prohibition to the government itself, naming “any department, division, board, agency or instrumentality, or other political subdivision of the State.” There is one exception of form, not of substance: Article 7 provides that camps sponsored by the Puerto Rico Police, by DRD itself and by a municipality’s Recreation and Sports offices or Municipal Police receive a certification instead of a licence, but the Department must still verify staff health, good conduct and training and the facilities’ safety and hygiene.

• The camp must hold a licence — or a certification, if sponsored by the Police, DRD or a municipality — issued by the Department of Recreation and Sports.Verified against the official source
• The licence and permits must be displayed in a place visible to the public.Verified against the official source
• The camp must be identified with the name under which it was registered and with the registration number provided by the Department.Verified against the official source
• All staff who work directly with minors, and whoever directs the camp, must hold a passed and current course in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and first aid.Verified against the official source
• No owner, administrator, operator, manager, custodian, employee or volunteer may have been convicted of a felony.Verified against the official source

• Health certificate for each owner, administrator, operator, manager, custodian, applicant, employee or volunteer.
• Negative penal-record certificate.
• Certification of not being included in the Police’s Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Abuse Against Minors nor in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Information System (SIJC).
• Certification of not being included in the Central Registry of Protection Cases of the Administration for Families and Children (ADFAN).
• Written authorisation consenting to investigation of the person’s conduct and health condition.

1. 1

   Step 1: First: it is no longer Family, it is Recreation and Sports

   This is where most people lose time calling the wrong agency. Article 38 says it plainly: “There is transferred from the Department of the Family to the Department of Recreation and Sports the function and responsibility of licensing and supervising all public and private camps in Puerto Rico.” The statement of motives explains why: a camp is not a child-care centre, it has minimum ages, it runs briefly, it is chosen by the child’s interest, it happens outdoors and it is tied to recreation. If you are going to ask, verify or complain about a camp, the agency is DRD.

2. 2

   Step 2: What you can look at on day one, without asking anyone

   Article 8 puts two things in plain sight. First: “The owner of every camp shall display in a place visible to the public the licence and the permits certifying that the establishment meets all the requirements established for its operation.” Second: “The camp must be identified with the name under which it was registered and the identification shall include the registration number provided by the Department.” That is: the licence hung up and the registration number on the identification. If you see neither, that is your first question, and it is not an impertinent one: it is a legal requirement.

3. 3

   Step 3: What you can verify before enrolling

   Article 25 orders the Department to keep an up-to-date register of licensed camps with the camp’s name, the full name of whoever operates it, the location, the facilities and services, the maximum enrolment it may admit, the service charge and the licence status. And it closes: “the Department shall publish through its website the information on the establishments or institutions to which it has issued the corresponding licence.” Article 5(l) reinforces the same duty: using technological tools “so that interested parents and citizens may verify camps’ compliance with the licensing requirements.” We publish no address for that register here because the Act names none; look for it at DRD.

4. 4

   Step 4: Who may work there, and what paperwork they had to hand in

   This is the Act’s strongest part and it is worth reading whole. Article 13 requires DRD to verify that owners, administrators, operators, managers, custodians and every applicant, employee or volunteer “have not been convicted of committing a felony,” have not been in rehabilitation programmes for controlled substances or alcoholism without meeting their conditions, have not been declared legally incapacitated, and are not under treatment for conditions that incapacitate them. And it demands five documents from each: a health certificate; a negative penal-record certificate; certification of not being in the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Abuse Against Minors nor in the SIJC; certification of not being in ADFAN’s Central Registry of Protection Cases; and written authorisation to be investigated. Note two words: “volunteers” is named alongside employees, and refusing to consent to the check “shall be sufficient grounds for the Department to prohibit the rendering of services to a camp.”

5. 5

   Step 5: You can ask them to come and inspect

   People assume inspection is the agency’s business and that is that. Article 17 says otherwise. It sets the floor — a visit to evaluate the structure when the application comes in, and afterwards “at least once (1) a year in the case of permanent camps; and at least once during the term of temporary camps” — and adds the door: “Inspections may be carried out at the Department’s own instance, at the request of the minors receiving the service or their relatives or adult campers upon the emergence of any complaint or referral of institutional abuse or institutional neglect.” The same article orders the Department to establish a protocol for referring those complaints to ADFAN’s Institutional Abuse Unit.

6. 6

   Step 6: The minimum the camp must give your child

   Article 24 sets five minimum services: recreational and educational activities programmed “according to the campers’ age, interests and conditions”; nutritious and balanced food; daily meals and snacks; a “menu certified by a licensed nutritionist which must be available and visible”; and transportation in line with the activity programme and emergency services. The certified, visible menu is another thing you can look at without asking permission. And Article 22 lists what the regulation must require for licensing, including a Fire Corps certification, an Environmental Health certification, a stocked first-aid kit, a safe labelled place for medications, a public liability and accident policy, lifeguards if there is a pool or beach, and an emergency plan certified by state or municipal emergency management.

7. 7

   Step 7: What happens if something goes wrong

   Article 19 empowers the Department to suspend or cancel the licence of a camp that breaches the Act, the regulation or its licence terms, or that fails to correct noted deficiencies in time. Article 18 adds a rule worth knowing: “Deficiencies in the areas of safety, food, health and hygiene shall require immediate correction with no right to an extension.” And Article 20 is the harshest: the Department may order immediate closure “even where it is a first violation,” and if the closure is for institutional abuse or neglect, fraud, document falsification or other crimes, the person is barred from applying for a licence again, from sitting on camp boards, and from being employed or rendering paid or volunteer services.

8. 8

   Step 8: If you are the one opening the camp

   The path the Act sets is short to describe and long to comply with. Article 11: first you request and receive an orientation on the Act and the regulation at DRD’s Licensing Programme; then you file the application with all the documents “at least sixty (60) calendar days before the projected start date of its operation”; and the Department “shall be obliged to evaluate and issue a decision on the licence application within sixty (60) calendar days.” If it is denied, Article 21 gives you the right to appeal before the Department itself under Act 8-2004 and its regulation. To renew, Article 12: you request it 60 days ahead and the Department decides within a term not exceeding 30 days; the renewal runs two more years. And Article 10 warns of something that sometimes surprises buyers of a business: the licence is only for that physical plant and that person, and it cannot be transferred, assigned, conveyed, reassigned or alienated.

At the Department of Recreation and Sports’ Camp and Sports and Recreational Activities Licensing and Supervision Programme, which is where the mandatory orientation is given, the application is filed and renewal and appeal are processed. The public register of licensed camps is published by the Department itself on its website. The director’s and recreational leader’s accreditation is issued by the Puerto Rican Institute for Sport and Recreation (IPDDER), attached to the Secretary’s Office. The Act publishes no address, telephone, hours or form number for any of them, and we do not invent them.

• Calling the Department of the Family: since Article 38 of this Act, camps are licensed by Recreation and Sports.
• Assuming a church or non-profit camp is outside: Article 3 applies “for profit or not for profit.”
• Believing government or municipal camps need nothing: they get a certification instead of a licence, but with the same substantive requirements.
• Not checking whether the licence is displayed and the camp carries its registration number: Article 8 requires both.
• Thinking volunteers skip the background check: Article 13 names them alongside employees.
• Accepting that there is no nutritionist-certified menu in sight: Article 24 requires it “available and visible.”
• Believing only the agency can request an inspection: Article 17 lets the minor, their relatives or the adult camper request one.
• Assuming a licence carries over when the camp is sold: Article 10 makes it non-transferable.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recreación y Deportes (DRD)

  DRD

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov