Most parents feel it’s safe to send kids to summer camp this year

With summer nearly here, many parents may be deciding whether or not it’s safe to send their children to camp this year.

New data from YouGov suggests that 47% of Americans believe it’s safe for children under 18 to go to summer camp this year. Slightly fewer (42%) believe that it is unsafe.

Among those who are parents to at least one child under 18, a majority (57%) think that it is safe for children to go to summer camp this year. Another 37% of parents are still cautious, however.

Among those Americans who attended summer camp themselves as children, 57% believe it is safe for children to go to camp this year. Among those who did not ever go to summer camp themselves, fewer (39%) think it is safe for children to go this year.

There is widespread consensus on the question of whether summer camps should require proof of a negative coronavirus test before children can attend an overnight summer camp. About seven in 10 (68%) Americans say they support this, while one in five (20%) are opposed.

The results are similar among parents: 73% say they support this policy, 20% are opposed.

The belief that summer camp is safe may be linked in part to the fact that COVID-19 deaths are declining, as well as the feeling among many parents that their families are ready to return to something resembling normalcy.

A separate poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist in March 2021 found that 51% of parents wanted their children to return to in-person schooling. Among the reasons why, 64% said they wanted peer interaction for their child, and 57% expressed a desire for returning to a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy.

See full results here.

Related: Americans think stay-at-home parenting should be considered a job

Methodology: 15,440 US adults 18+ were surveyed between April 29 – May 2, 2021. The responding sample is weighted to be representative of the US population.