SwimRVA challenges state finding that summer camps should have been licensed

SwimRVA is taking the Virginia Department of Education to court, challenging the state's finding that its summer camps did not qualify for an exemption from child care licensing requirements when 9-year-old King Overton drowned at one of its camps.

SwimRVA filed a petition for appeal in Richmond Circuit Court on Sept. 2, asking a judge to overturn VDOE's July 20 decision and declare that its summer camps were exempt from state licensure. The organization argues the state misapplied Virginia law and imposed requirements that do not appear in the statute or state regulations.

King Overton, who, according to his mother, could not swim, drowned June 15 on his first day of summer camp at SwimRVA's North location in Henrico County. His mother had enrolled him in the camp so he could learn to swim, according to his family's attorneys. The family has since filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against SwimRVA.

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