Program Aquatic Standards, PA
Below is the link to the reviewed/revised/reformatted standards for what, in the current Accreditation Process Guide, are the Program Aquatic Standards (PA).
What’s Different?
- Some re-organization of standards into general topic areas (ex: all standards that deal with “staff qualifications/supervision” are grouped together).
- Standards that asked for the camp to do something AND to “advise user groups” have been split into separate scoreable standards, so hopefully it is clearer what is being asked (see PA-14). This step will also allow for a “cleaner” version of the standards to be accessed through the Web-based system.
- Majority of the applicability statements have been incorporated at the beginning of the section.
Please note: Once all revisions/reformatting have been completed, all standards will be assigned the appropriate number.
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Aquatics
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PA-8
This standard is allowed to be a DNA if the camp never serves persons with any kind of impaired mobility near bodies of water. This means that a camp can say, "We will never serve a camper with mobility issues." It would be easy for all camps to comply with this by simply adding to their policies when to remove support equipment, and how they would prevent accidental access to the water if a camper in a wheelchair was at camp.
user group lifeguard requirements
I have read the revised standards and still am somewhat unclear about the lifeguard requirements (number and certifications) for user groups that provide their own personnel. What should the camp communicate to the user group about their responsibility as it pertains to lifeguard requirements? We are trying to provide clarification on this to our user groups.
PA-2, PA-15(formerly 12), PA-4 (formerly 15)
This list of items in the standard were formerly idenitfiied with bullet points and an AND after the 2nd bullet point signifying a camp needed to be compliant with all 3 bullet points to meet the standard.
In this version the bullet points are replaced with Capital A,B, C signifying each one is individually scored. However, the AND is still there after B indicating the camp must meet all three individually scored items.
Is that correct??
In some recent point of the standards, there was frantic discussion of the use of the word natural to define bodies of water that might have been carved in the ice ages or might have been made with a bulldozer. This clarification of the term "natural bodies of water" to include both those seems to have disappeared, from the current interpretation, from the proposed Contexual Education and from the Glossary. Is there a need to clarify that again in the body of the standard or the Contexual Education or Glossary?
The new wording for PA-4 (both the standard and the Contexual Education) is very good to clearly define the difference bewteen training and skills verification.