We commented recently about the importance of picking a summer camp accredited by the American Camp Association. This prompted a few emails from parents wanting to know if accredited camps are "better" than non-accredited ones. The answer is by all means no, it doesn't mean that at all.
When you pick a summer camp that has earned accreditation, you get the peace of mind of knowing that camp is complying with up to 300 best practice industry standards from activity programming to staff hiring to child-to-counselor ratios to safety and more in the summer camp field.
Perhaps many non-accredited camps meet these standards too, but you will never know unless you ask the camp director why his or her camp has not achieved accreditation.
If the answer is unsatisfactory to you, you can always find another camp.
But getting back to our original question, it is important to note that many non-accredited camps may be just as "good" (a subjective term for sure) as those which are accredited.
