A Parent's Guide to New Jersey Special Needs Summer Camps For Kids - 2025 Edition
2025 New Jersey Special Needs Camps For Kids.
New Jersey is home to a diverse array of Special Needs Camps, offering children the chance to explore, have fun, and make lasting memories in a supportive environment.
These camps cater to kids of all abilities, creating programs filled with adventure, friendship, and shared interests.
Many facilities are staffed with skilled medical professionals to address specific needs, ensuring a safe and inclusive experience for every child.
Additionally, several camps provide one-on-one companion support, tailoring care to individual requirements.
Remarkably, some of these camps operate free of charge, making these incredible opportunities accessible to families across New Jersey.
NJ Kids Summer Cancer Camps
Camp Quality New Jersey
Sandyston, NJ
Camp Quality serves children with cancer and their families by providing year-round programs, experiences, and companionship, at no cost. Camp Quality promotes hope and inspiration while helping children foster life skills and develop their full potential.
A unique program of personal attention. Each camper is paired with an adult companion. At camp, a companion spends the entire week by his/her camper's side.
Happiness Is Camping
Blairstown, NJ
Th camp free to children ages diagnosed with cancer and catastrophic blood diseases. The camp is also free to the siblings of the campers.
NJ Kids Diabetes Camps
Camp NejadaStillwater, NJ
Open to children affected by type 1 diabetes
At Camp Nejeda children and teens with type 1 diabetes are given the opportunity to live, if only for one or two weeks, in a world where having diabetes is the norm. Campers with diabetes are free to just be children and to enjoy a fun and educational camping experience in a safe learning environment.
NJ Kids Developmental Disabilities Camps
Cambridge School's Summer Program
Pennington, NJ
Offers a program for academic regression.
Summer programs focusing on remedial, accelerated, or enriched learning have been shown to have a positive effect on students' content and skill retention. Cambridge School's Summer Program offers a unique opportunity for students to continue receiving academic instruction in the morning and to participate in a variety of enrichment activities in the afternoon.
Camp Acorn
Allendale, NJ
Camp Acorn serves children and adults with developmental disabilities through year round enrichment programs. Their mission is to provide a supportive environment through enrichment programs that address the physical, emotional, and social well-being of children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Camp Sun N' Fun
Williamstown, NJ
Open to
children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Offers children and adults with developmental disabilities an opportunity to participate in and enjoy summer recreational activities. Located on over 30 wooded acres in Williamstown, NJ. Camp Sun 'N Fun boasts a variety of amenities, including air-conditioned cabins, barrier-free bathrooms and showers, an Olympic-sized barrier-free swimming pool, nature trail, open areas for sports and recreation, an on-site medical facility that is staffed 24 hours a day.
Rising Treetops
Oakhurst, NJ
Open all year, serving children and adults with special needs, including autism and physical and intellectual disabilities, through their summer sleep away camp, year-round overnight respite (planned and emergency), and day respite care programs.
NJ Kids Visual Impairment Camps
Camp Marcella
Rockaway, NJ
Their summer camp ground designed specifically for children and teens with blindness, visual impairments and special needs, designed and owned by the NJ Camp for Blind Children (NJCBC), a non-profit organization. It's located on 200 acres of woodland surroundings and a clear fish laden lake, with all of its facilities designed for the best possible care of visually impaired children. The camp is located in one of the few areas of New Jersey that has not been touched by suburban sprawl. Camp is adjacent to the Pequannock Watershed, Farny State Park and a large Boy Scout Reservation.
Helen L. Diller Vacation Home For Blind Children
Avalon, NJ
The Camp is free to children ages from seven years in age to fifteen years with a visual impairment. The camp offers a variety of activities both on and off grounds. The on-site activities include: a talent show, arts & crafts, play time on the playground, hanging out with friends, audio books, and more.
Other NJ disabilities and/or special needs Camps
Camp Bright Feathers
YMCA of the Pines
Medford Lakes, NJ
They offer a one week in August overnight camp for ages 7-16 for children and teens affected by HIV/AIDS and/or violence through a nurturing overnight camp program that focuses on improving the health, well-being and self-sufficiency of all. Camp Bright Feathers provides a stress-free, fun, recreational camp in the woods for these children that are dealing with an assortment of issues back at home. It's a chance for these children to be just kids.
The camp sits on over 800 acres in the heart of the pine barons. The camp has two man made lakes where the children can go swimming, boating, and fishing. The campers also participate in land sports, arts and crafts, nature, horseback riding, hiking, tractor rides, campfires, talent show, a dance, and karaoke.
Camp Clover
Warren, NJ
A four-day bereavement day camp designed for children and teens that have recently lost a loved one. Sponsored by Atlantic Visiting Nurse, the Camp focuses on children, who have completed grades 1 through 8, dealing with the loss of a parent or someone who was very close to them.
Free of charge, Camp Clover offers traditional fun summer camp activities, such as swimming, basketball, arts and crafts, combined with grief education and emotional support.
Camp Firefly
Moorestown, NJ
For children who have lost a parent, sibling or other special person through death, Camp Firefly provides a special place to share feelings, to make new friends, and to find relief from grief. Throughout the camp weekend, activities designed to help ease grief are combined with traditional fun camp experiences such as swimming, canoeing, cookouts, and arts-and-crafts. The camp is fully staffed by professional counselors and trained volunteers.
They offer a two day overnight weekend camp for children 7 to 14 years old. Residency Requirements: Must reside in Burlington, Camden or Gloucester, NJ counties or have a loved one who received care under The Hospice of Moorestown VNA services.
Camp Merry Heart
Hackettstown, NJ
Open to youth Independent to Moderate Care youths aged 6 - 21, and Independent to Moderate Care adults 18+
Operated by Easterseals is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has helped children and adults with disabilities and special needs, live better lives for nearly a century.
Located on a 123 acre facility, they offer year-round programs in a beautiful and safe setting that provides opportunities for self-determination and group participation, along with physical exercise. In addition, Camp Merry Heart offers fun recreational trips and excursions, and weekend getaways that supply much-needed respite for family caregivers.
Camp NOVA
Monmouth & Sussex Counties
Serving children and young adults with epilepsy and other developmental disabilities, They offer an (Overnight) Children and Adults (age 12 & up) in Sussex County, and Day camp Children (ages 5 to 15) Monmouth County.
They are dedicated to creating a wonderful opportunity for children and young adults living with epilepsy and other developmental disabilities to enjoy summer camp.
Camp Shriver
Lawrenceville, NJ
Special Olympics can trace its roots to a backyard summer camp started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, known as Camp Shriver, five years before the Special Olympics movement began. New Jersey embraces this legacy by hosting our own version of Camp Shriver every summer.
Camp Shriver is about fitness, wellness, sports, fun, and learning.
