Texas parents choosing a youth camp in 2026 can now check a defined set of state safety measures, including licensing, evacuation planning, emergency alerts, training and rooftop access for certain cabins in floodplains.
The DFW connection is Hadley Hanna, who died in the July 4, 2025 flooding at Camp Mystic and along the Guadalupe River. Published reporting identifies Hadley as a University Park ISD student and says her family advocated for stronger youth-camp protections.
The North Texas connection in the legislative record
An official Texas Senate witness list records Carrie and Doug Hanna as witnesses supporting Senate Bill 1 at an Aug. 20, 2025 hearing.
Texas ultimately enacted the measure as the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act. The official record documents the Hannas’ support for the bill but does not establish how much any individual family influenced the final law.
What Texas changed
The enacted-law summary outlines several protections affecting Texas youth camps. The law requires emergency evacuation planning, enhanced alerts and safety training.
It also requires rooftop access ladders for certain cabins located in floodplains and limits the licensing of certain youth camps with floodplain cabins.
The Texas Department of State Health Services adopted implementing rules in January 2026 and made an emergency-plan guidance tool available in March. The agency says qualifying youth camps must be licensed before they operate.
A checklist for parents
The records refer to qualifying camps and certain floodplain cabins, so parents should ask how the requirements apply to the specific camp and site they are considering.
- License: Ask whether the camp is required to hold a state license and, if it is, whether that license was obtained before the camp began operating.
- Evacuation: Ask the camp to explain its emergency evacuation plan and when it would be activated.
- Alerts: Ask which enhanced emergency-alert measures the camp uses.
- Training: Ask how the camp provides the safety training required under the law.
- Floodplain cabins: Ask whether any cabins are in a floodplain, whether licensing restrictions apply and whether cabins covered by the rooftop-access requirement have ladders.
Those questions let parents focus on the protections documented in current state records without assuming every provision applies identically to every camp or cabin.
