The state has approved just nine camp licenses. More than 300 applications remain pending three weeks before sessions are scheduled to begin.
CEDAR HILL, Texas — Summer camps across Texas expect to open in late May.
But with only weeks to go before the first sessions start, hundreds are awaiting licensing from the state.
“We’re just about three weeks out and we’re expecting to get our license about a week before camp is what we’re being told right now,” said Eddie Walker, executive director at Mt. Lebanon Summer Camp in Cedar Hill.
Mt. Lebanon’s application is among the more than 300 still pending, as camps work to comply with new standards instituted by lawmakers after a flood killed 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic on July 4, 2025.
The bill known as “Heaven’s 27” passed in the months after the flood.
The Department of State Health Services has issued just nine licenses to camps across Texas.
Walker says Mt. Lebanon has spent more than $100,000 on things like a new public address system and a two-way radio system. They took down their playground, installed new lighting, and are putting ladders in cabins so campers can escape to the roof in case of a flood. But Mt. Lebanon sits on the highest point in Dallas County.
The cost of their application to the state also went up from $465 in 2025 to $19,500 in 2026, Walker said.
Mt. Lebanon already had fiber optic internet service, which the law now requires, but some camps in rural Texas have told Walker they can’t afford it.
While some camp directors are not willing to speak against the new regulations, Walker feels like he can have a voice, because he is also the president of the Texas section of the Christian Camp and Conference Association.
“Sometimes camps are scared. They don’t want to be seen as opposing safety by any means, but there are some things that need to get addressed,” he said.
Some camps have filed suit over the fiber requirement, and Walker has been lobbying for a special session to specifically address that part of the law.
State Rep. Wes Virdell, a Republican who represents Kerr County where Camp Mystic is located, also requested a special session in a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott signed by several colleagues.
Walker isn’t expecting to see action out of the legislature anytime soon.
“It takes a lot of political courage to say, ‘we’re gonna bring this back up and talk it out further.’ I hope they’ll do it, because the point is camper safety,” he said.
According to the Department of State Health Services, many camps with pending applications have received notice of deficiency letters from the state detailing changes they need to make to their emergency action plans.
“Camps who receive the NOD letter are given 45 days from the time they received the letter to bring their emergency plans into compliance with the new requirements,” DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton said in a statement. “DSHS is concurrently conducting pre-licensure inspections so that licenses can be issued as soon as a camp has met the requirements.”
Youth camps can continue operating while their application status is pending,” Anton said.
But Walker said he believes some camps will close over the new standards.
“You can’t overcome a bid of a million dollars for a small camp just to get a fiber line to your camp,” he said. “Absolutely, we’ll lose some camps.”
Walker and his wife, Sarah, spent their careers in ministry and at camps.
Eddie was a camper at Mt. Lebanon from the time he was 11 years old. He and his met there as counselors.
“This is where I began my walk with the Lord. It determined who I married, what job I did. It shaped my life,” Walker said. “It is everything good about what it means to be a child and how to grow into a man or a woman.”
Walker didn’t sleep last year after the tragedy at Camp Mystic. He immediately began reviewing safety procedures, long before the state required it.
The camp’s emergency action plan went from 5 pages long to 45.
“I can tell you this is a safe and good place, and your kids need to come here and we’re going to take good care of them as though they are our own kids and grandkids,” Sarah said.