Texas Passes Camp Safety Legislation After Coordinating With Camp Mystic Families
Families want camps to operate, but with safety as a priority.
The “joy and growth” that should take place at summer camp “cannot exist without safety,” CeCe Williams-Steward, mother of still missing 8-year-old Camp Mystic camper Cile Steward, said during a hearing before the Texas Senate.
A Camp Mystic sign near camp’s entrance along banks of Guadalupe River after flash flood swept through in July 2025. (AP Photo via RNS/Julio Cortez)
“Obvious, common sense safety measures were absent. Protocols that should have been in place were ignored. As a result, my daughter was stolen from us,” Williams-Steward added. She urged the Senate to pass Senate Bill (SB) 1, a comprehensive bill to address campground and youth camp safety measures.
The bill passed the Texas Legislature on September 3, the last day of the Second Special Session, and will now go to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
SB 1, authored by state Sen. Charles Perry, was crafted with much input from the Camp Mystic families that legislators referred to as “Heaven’s 27.”
It includes multiple features to increase campground safety, including: installing emergency rooftop access ladders in cabins located in floodplains; developing an emergency plan that addresses the safety of campers in all types of natural disasters (e.g., flash floods, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, etc.); implementing the applicable portions of the emergency plan during each type of natural disaster; providing a copy of the emergency plan to the local emergency management coordinator(s); and implementing basic fire safety standards.
The bill also includes several provisions, based on feedback received from Camp Mystic families, that apply to youth camps, especially regarding floods. These include prohibiting cabins operated in flood plains, requiring operable weather alert radios in each cabin, installing emergency warning systems, and conducting safety orientations with campers at the beginning of each camp session.
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Many of the Camp Mystic victim families who lost children at Camp Mystic in the catastrophic Guadalupe River flooding on July 4 testified in the lengthy Senate hearing on August 20, expressing their sorrow and voicing their support for the legislative reforms.
Michael McCown lost his 8-year-old daughter Linnie in the floods.
“We trusted Camp Mystic with her precious life, but that trust was broken in the most devastating way,” McCown said, adding that when the camp took action, it was “too little, too late.”
He commented that the requirements of SB 1 should already be the base line emergency requirements for a summer camp, but these kinds of protections were not in place at Camp Mystic and McCown is left wondering why.
Clark Baker said of his daughter Mary Grace’s death: “Her death was 100% preventable. Complacency, among other things, led to the deaths of 27 amazing, innocent, beautiful girls.”
SB 1 passed the Texas House by a vote of 120 to 4. During the flood debate, State Rep. Wes Virdell, who represents the area where Camp Mystic lies and who actively helped in the search and recovery efforts, urged lawmakers to reconsider several provisions of the bill that he thought were overly broad and would harm some camps unintentionally.
For example, he pointed to a provision requiring each cabin to be at least 1,000 feet from a floodway, regardless of its elevation. If a cabin is on a high bluff above a river, but not 1,000 feet away from the floodway, it cannot be occupied.
“I believe we have rushed too quickly into legislation that has many flaws and will be detrimental to camps and to campers,” Virdell said. “If this bill passes, it will likely cease the operations of many camps and future camper experiences that have had little to no problems in their history of operations.”
The American Camp Association has guidance for camps about flood risk. They warned in an article, “Just because you are not aware of any flooding history in your area, don’t assume it can’t happen to you in the future. Likewise, don’t conclude that you have no flood risk if your property is not in a flood zone.”
It recommends camps conduct a flood risk assessment, saying there may be affordable projects that reduce the flood risk to a property, such as dredging or dam maintenance.
It also offers camps resources about crisis management and communication.
The Christian Camp and Conference Association also provides its members with resources. In September, it is hosting a webinar about building better emergency plans for camps.
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