Did You See This Update? Parents May Now Tent With Scouts in Older Youth Programs

[InquisitiveScouter]

All,

Perusing the Guide to Safe Scouting, as I do from time to time, and came across this...

A policy change that went into effect between Sep and Oct 2025, allowing parents/guardians to tent with their child in youth programs beyond Cub Scouts:

Current "Accommodations" policy now says:  "As an exception, a parent or guardian may share a tent with their own child if they are of the same sex."

https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/gss01/#a

 

The web archives show this went in last fall...

https://web.archive.org/web/20250902105452/https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/gss01/

https://web.archive.org/web/20251018205912/https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/gss/gss01/

I had not seen any announcement of this in any channels...  how about any of you?

I'm fine with this, if there is a genuine health and safety reason (sleep walking, bedwetting, severe asthma, etc.)

Looks like more of a move toward "Family Scouting", though...

Thoughts?

Edited March 29 by InquisitiveScouter

[InquisitiveScouter]

Further clarification....  the "As an exception..." clause means you'll need to still clear this with council.

We had pursued such an exception back in 2019, and our SE coordinated with National an approved exception to allow a parent to camp with a Scout who was a sleepwalker.

My professional contacts elaborate that this "new" piece in G2SS means the "exception" is now at the council level.

[Tron]

When I asked my council about this it was explained to me to be more of an emergency clause. Things such as a scout becomes ill on a campout but cant abandon back to home for some reason, or perhaps a series of catastrophic equipment issues on a backpacking trip and the youth and parent must tent because its the only option to not violate other tenting rules.

I was told it is not meant to be an alternative to managing a known persistent issue or condition that would be considered routine outside of scouting.

 

[InquisitiveScouter]

12 minutes ago, Tron said:

I was told it is not meant to be an alternative to managing a known persistent issue or condition that would be considered routine outside of scouting.

I agree with that reasoning, but that is not how our pro staff is implementing this locally.

Their lament is that, once again, terms and conditions are not clearly articulated from National.

Our council has levied the requirement that any out-of-council unit which needs this "exception" must have it in writing from their Scout Executive, or it isn't happening.  That is. most likely, a CYA move, because common sense isn't common any more.

They also advised us this morning, to get an SE email (so, in writing) to take with us for out-of-council events, to pre-empt any issues which might arise in other "jurisdictions".

Once again, National has used the FAQ's to elaborate instead of stating the policy clearly in the source.

"Q. Can I share a tent with my son or daughter who has special needs?

A. Youth and adults tent separately in the Scouts BSA, Sea Scouts, and Venturing programs. Youth who have a special need or disability who may require a parent or legal guardian to tent with them must develop a plan in conjunction with their local council Scout Executive to address their specific needs."

https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/yp-faqs/

Edited March 30 by InquisitiveScouter

[Tron]

The cross council issue. That might be driven by the cross council reporting requirements. So as I understand it (by unfortunately being involved as a witness to an incident) if a reportable incident happens in a cross council scenario (resident camp outside of council for instance) the incident is automatically a national level incident and investigated by national (probably mostly through the involved councils investigating and reporting to national).

[InquisitiveScouter]

Then why don't they just write the policy to say,

"On a case-by-case basis, the local council may issue a written exception to a parent or legal guardian to tent with a Scout who has a special need or disability requiring care. The unit and parents must develop a plan in conjunction with their local council Scout Executive to address their specific needs."

???

[Eagle94-A1]

1 minute ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Then why don't they just write the policy to say,

"On a case-by-case basis, the local council may issue a written exception to a parent or legal guardian to tent with a Scout who has a special need or disability requiring care. The unit and parents must develop a plan in conjunction with their local council Scout Executive to address their specific needs."

???

That would be common sense.

Personally I do NOT like the new policy as I see abuse of it in the future.