My daughter was recently diagnosed in Nov 2025. We called the camp to let them know about her diagnosis and find out what their processes are for children with T1D. We are in NJ, she has been attending this camp for 4 years, and we have already paid for this summer.
They told us that they already have two children with T1D, and they can’t support another, so unfortunately, she can’t attend this year. It was not what we expected to hear, and my first thought was that this can’t be legal (especially if they are already treating other T1Ds).
They were very nice and said they will refund and work with us if we want to bring a medical professional with her every day. But that seems like they were just passing on the burden/expense to us vs. dealing with it in an equitable way.
Has anyone dealt with something similar? We are not even sure we are comfortable sending her to an all-day camp yet, but I’d hate for the camp to think this is OK in the event that other kids develop similar diagnoses.
@kylekayWelcome Kyle, to the Breakthrough T1D Community Forum!
You may have legal redress by requesting “Reasonable Accommodation “ under P.L. 101-336; although the Camp could respond, and reject you request, by presenting that it is already at capacity.
In the meantime, you may want to look into diabetes camps before they fill to capacity. An advantage of attending a camp dedicated to diabetes education, management, and treatment is that your daughter will learn how to live independently in the management of her diabetes and not be needing to rely on always having an attendant watching over her.
I’m a bit older than her. but after having been diagnosed in July I returned to school in September and didn’t tell anyone that I now had diabetes; that was in the “olden days” - 69+ years ago - when diabetes management was much more simple.
That is awful and I wouldn’t recommend that camp, even if they do change their minds. I recommend Camp Nejeda: https://www.campnejeda.org/
I went to a camp for children with diabetes the summer after my diagnosis when I was eight and I loved it! It was like a normal sleepaway camp, but with trained counselors and professionals capable of assisting medically. We also had an educational portion of camp dedicated to ensuring we were knowledgable about diabetes. It helped me feel normal after nearly a year of feeling like the odd one out.