A resource list for exploring summer camps for kids with special needs. Feel free to mention any great camps in the comments that your child has been to, and enjoyed.
Very Special Camps lists camps and programs for people with special needs around the country; you can browse by disability or by state.
My Summer Camps lists camps by disability, which you can then filter by state.
Easter Seals Disability Services has 30 accessible camps around the country—for adults, too.
Federation for Children with Special Needs lists camps for kids with special needs by disability.
Cristo Vive International provides Christ-based camp programs for children with disabilities around the world; there are a few locations in this country.
One Happy Camper lets you search for Jewish camps with inclusive programs. Ones I can vouch for: Yachad's summer program (in NJ) and the Ramah Tikvah program (in NY, PA, MA, GA, CO, WI, CA and Canada and more), which are both inclusionary. I have also heard good things about Camp HASC in Parksville, NY, which follows IEPs.
A couple of notable camps for children and teens with special needs in the tri-state area, my neck of the woods: Southampton Fresh Air Home in Southampton, NY; Elks Camp Moore in Haskell, NJ; Camp Fatima in Harrison, NJ; and Double H Ranch in Lake Luzerne, NY. And one camp I recently found out about that looks great: Victory Junction, in Randleman, North Carolina, for kids with serious illnesses (they offer a week for campers with cerebral palsy).
Image: Flickr/Kris Krug
