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NY State to Regulate Children's Games at Camps
Updated: Tuesday, 19 Apr 2011, 2:01 PM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 19 Apr 2011, 2:01 PM CDT
(NewsCore) - ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York State legislators have targeted freeze tag, kickball and dodgeball as kids' games posing a "significant risk of injury" that must now be regulated at day camps, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
Legislators are imposing new regulations on the timeless children's games in an attempt to close a loophole in a 2009 law that sought to prohibit indoor camp programs from operating without oversight, according to the report.
The update to the law requires any program offering two or more activities from the risk list to pay a $200 registration fee and have medical staff on hand.
New York State Senator Patty Ritchie, who said the new regulations could cripple smaller recreation programs, added that legislators were overstepping their bounds.
"It looks like Albany bureaucrats are looking for kids to just sit in a corner in a house all day and not be outside," Ritchie said, according to the Daily News. "I don't think Wiffle Ball is a dangerous sport."
Health Department spokeswoman Diane Mathis told the Daily News the list was created with input from camp groups and was meant merely as a "guidance" to local governments and organizations.
Mathis said not every program will be required to hire medical personnel, but must have a plan in place to handle medical emergencies.
"There will be flexibility in how the law is implemented," Mathis said.
There are 2,300 regulated summer camps in New York, according to myFOXny.com. They are required to be under permit and inspected twice a year by the Department of Health.
State statistics claim that of more than 640,000 children who attend camps, less than two-tenths of one percent are injured in any manner, according to myFOXny.com.
Read more on myFOXdfw.com: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpps/news/ny...#ixzz1K2NRGB7i
Updated: Tuesday, 19 Apr 2011, 2:01 PM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 19 Apr 2011, 2:01 PM CDT
(NewsCore) - ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York State legislators have targeted freeze tag, kickball and dodgeball as kids' games posing a "significant risk of injury" that must now be regulated at day camps, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
Legislators are imposing new regulations on the timeless children's games in an attempt to close a loophole in a 2009 law that sought to prohibit indoor camp programs from operating without oversight, according to the report.
The update to the law requires any program offering two or more activities from the risk list to pay a $200 registration fee and have medical staff on hand.
New York State Senator Patty Ritchie, who said the new regulations could cripple smaller recreation programs, added that legislators were overstepping their bounds.
"It looks like Albany bureaucrats are looking for kids to just sit in a corner in a house all day and not be outside," Ritchie said, according to the Daily News. "I don't think Wiffle Ball is a dangerous sport."
Health Department spokeswoman Diane Mathis told the Daily News the list was created with input from camp groups and was meant merely as a "guidance" to local governments and organizations.
Mathis said not every program will be required to hire medical personnel, but must have a plan in place to handle medical emergencies.
"There will be flexibility in how the law is implemented," Mathis said.
There are 2,300 regulated summer camps in New York, according to myFOXny.com. They are required to be under permit and inspected twice a year by the Department of Health.
State statistics claim that of more than 640,000 children who attend camps, less than two-tenths of one percent are injured in any manner, according to myFOXny.com.
Read more on myFOXdfw.com: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpps/news/ny...#ixzz1K2NRGB7i
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