Sexual abuse at camps and in youth programs: how claims work

Legal accuracy check

Chris Schroeder, Esq.

Florida Bar #520381 · D.C. Bar

First published October 5, 2026 · Last checked October 5, 2026

How pages are checked

How claims against camps and youth programs work

This page covers overnight and day camps, scouting, mentoring programs and youth clubs: places where adults, many of them volunteers or seasonal staff, look after children away from home and school. School-run programs bring in the public or private school rules, and organized sports have their own governing bodies, so related pages cover public schools, private and religious schools and youth and college sports. Every institution type is listed on the institutions hub.

Negligence: screening, training and supervision

The core claim is state common-law negligence: negligent hiring, supervision and retention of the counselor, leader, mentor or volunteer who caused the harm. The rules vary by state, and the questions are much the same everywhere. Did the program run background checks and call references? Did it train staff on abuse and on reporting? Did it allow one adult to be alone with one child, on an overnight trip or in a cabin, or let contact continue outside program hours? Did anyone report concerns, and what happened next? A mentoring program that matches one adult with one child for months raises these questions in a sharper form than a large day camp does.

Programs often rely on volunteers, and a federal law limits what volunteers themselves can be sued for. The Volunteer Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. 14503, protects a volunteer of a nonprofit from liability for harm caused while acting within the scope of the role, if the law’s conditions are met. One condition is that the harm was not caused by “willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct,” or flagrant indifference to the safety of the person harmed. The Act also says nothing in it affects “the liability of any nonprofit organization” for harm to any person, so the program itself is not protected. And the protection does not apply at all to misconduct that “involves a sexual offense, as defined by applicable State law, for which the defendant has been convicted in any court.”

Who can be held responsible

Many youth programs run on a two-level structure: a national organization that owns the name, writes standards and offers training, and a local council, club or affiliate that is a separate corporation and runs the actual program. Survivors usually sue both. The local program is the easier one to reach. The national organization may be harder, for two separate reasons.

Liability. The national body did not usually employ the local staff, so the claim has to rest on its own conduct, such as the standards it set, what it knew about a local program, or whether it controlled day-to-day operations. That differs by organization and by state law.

Jurisdiction. A state court can hear a claim against an out-of-state organization only if the claim is connected to what that organization did in the state. That is what the New Jersey Supreme Court decided on August 19, 2026 in E.T. v. The Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County (A-69-24). Nine plaintiffs allege that a part-time counselor at the Hudson County club abused them between 1976 and 1984. They sued the local club and Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which is federally chartered in the District of Columbia and based in Georgia. Their theory was that the national organization established local clubs in New Jersey but failed to put in place policies to prevent child sexual abuse. By 5 to 2, the court held there was no specific personal jurisdiction over the national organization in New Jersey, because the claims did not arise from any act it “affirmatively took in or directed toward New Jersey.” It noted that neither it nor the U.S. Supreme Court has ever held that a failure to adopt policies counts as “purposeful availment,” the legal term for reaching into a state. The local club remains a defendant, and the court said the claims “will still be heard in New Jersey, though not against BGCA.” Two justices dissented, writing that the national organization promoted its member clubs as “safe haven[s]” for New Jersey children and had reached into the state. The ruling is about which court can hear the claims. It decided nothing about whether the abuse happened, and the national organization’s position on the underlying allegations is not in the opinion.

The person who committed the abuse can be sued too, and a criminal case is separate and can run at the same time; see civil and criminal cases. A camp run by a church may also be covered on our page about churches and religious organizations. Our guides to child sexual abuse and grooming describe the patterns that often show up in these cases, and online exploitation covers contact that moves to phones and social media after camp ends.

Deadline issues for camps and youth programs

State limits and revival laws. Most camp and youth program claims are childhood abuse claims, so the state’s rule for those claims governs. New Jersey lets survivors sue “any time before reaching the age of fifty-five,” under a 2019 amendment that also revived claims barred under the old two-year limit, as the E.T. opinion describes. California has no time limit for childhood sexual assault that occurred on or after January 1, 2024 (Code Civ. Proc. 340.1); earlier abuse runs on the law as it stood on December 31, 2023. Maryland removed its limit for childhood sexual abuse claims on October 1, 2023, a change its Supreme Court upheld 4 to 3 on February 3, 2025 (opinion). New York’s Child Victims Act window closed on August 14, 2021. The full set of rules is in our statute of limitations reference.

Charitable immunity. Camps and clubs are often nonprofits, and a few states have shielded nonprofits from negligence suits. New Jersey removed that shield for negligent hiring, supervision or retention that resulted in a sexual offense against a minor (P.L.2005, c.264) and, from December 1, 2019, for willful, wanton or grossly negligent acts including sexual abuse (P.L.2019, c.120).

Public programs. A camp or after-school program run by a city, county or school district is a public entity, and claims against public bodies often require a written notice within months. California’s six-month claim rule (Gov. Code 911.2) does not apply to childhood sexual assault claims, which Gov. Code 905(m) exempts. Other states differ.

Bankruptcy. When a national youth organization files for bankruptcy, the court’s claims deadline overrides state law against that organization and anyone its plan releases. The Boy Scouts case, below, is the example.

Active and recent matters involving youth programs

Each line is an allegation unless it says a court has ruled. Status is as of the date given.

Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 in February 2020 in Delaware. Its plan created the Scouting Settlement Trust, funded with about $2.48 billion, and released not only the national organization but also local councils, chartering organizations such as churches, schools and civic groups, and insurers, none of which filed for bankruptcy. Seventy-five survivors challenged those releases. On January 12, 2026 the Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal, which is a refusal to take the case, not a ruling on the merits, and the plan is now final. New claims into the trust are closed, because claims not filed by the bankruptcy’s bar date were generally extinguished at confirmation. Our Boy Scouts page explains the trust and the release fight in full.

For anyone abused in Scouting, the practical point is that a released council or chartering organization generally cannot be sued now. A lawyer can check whether a particular defendant falls outside the release.

Where to go next

Parents can start with our guide for families, and reporting abuse explains how to report to police or child protective services directly, without going through the program. Many survivors sue under initials; see filing anonymously. How to file a claim walks through what a lawsuit involves, and settlements and compensation explains how trusts like the Boy Scouts trust pay. If you want a lawyer to look at your own dates, a free, confidential case review costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

Questions we are asked most