No State License for Short Summer Camps in Pa.

It turns out that short-term summer day camps like the one in Delaware County where the director was busted for child porn this past week aren't licensed by the state.

KYW's Tony Romeo reports summer camps like Camp Flying Hawk which are not run by child care facilities were once regulated by the Department of Environmental Resources. But when that agency was split two years ago, responsibility for those camps fell to the state Department of Health.

And health department spokeswoman Holli Senior says unlike the old DER, the health department didn't feel that state law empowered it to require permits for camps that operate for less than 90 days:

"No one ever got those regulations mandated. Therefore, they never became law. So when the responsibility shifted back to the Department of Health – we are only legally allowed to follow the requirements of Act 497."

Senior says, however, that camps running for five days or more are required to register with the department and provide basic information something she says Camp Flying Hawk did not do.