Biocitizen LA FAQs

Your ACTIVE account allows you to save your information for future programs, review your registration forms and any Biocitizen LA waivers, see any outstanding balances, save any credits, and list the programs you are enrolled in.

 Here are a few options to access your account:

1. Log into your account through active.com with your email and password.
2. Click “Manage your online account” at the bottom of any ACTIVE email receipt.
3. Access your account with this link: https://campsself.active.com/biocitizenincca

Please reach out to our admin team if you encounter any issues accessing your account!

Check out our comprehensive Camp Supply List for half day and full day programming: Biocitizen LA Camper Supply List. 

If you are in need of any of the required items, please don’t hesitate to contact our Assistant Director, Marysia, to help problem solve by emailing marysia@biocitizen.org.

Biocitizen LA has outlined a timeline for cancellations and correlating refunds. Please refer to our Cancellation & Refund Policies page on our website.

Requests for friends and siblings to be in the same group may be submitted on the registration form in ACTIVE.

Any requests made after registering must be emailed to our admin team at least 1 week in advance of the program start date.

While we cannot guarantee friend requests, we will do our best to accommodate requests that are approved by program directors. Typically when we separate groups by age, we have two loosely defined age groups: 5-7 year olds and 8+ year olds. We try to minimize age gaps over 2 years, so that we can facilitate a cohesive group dynamic.

Please contact our admin team with any questions: registration.la@biocitizen.org and admin.la@biocitizen.org

Summer Camp is for students ages 5 through 14. Five years old is as young as we can accept, as to ensure a cohesive group experience. Depending on the program length, some programs are often doable for 5+ year olds so long as they have a foundation of hiking and or physical activity. Our days in the field can be long and some of the younger students find it challenging. 

We split up into separate groups based on age / hiking ability, but only if we have enough enrollments to do so (we have a minimum of 6 students per group). Generally, younger groups have students aged 5 through 7, and older groups have students aged 8 and above.

We monitor weather conditions and environmental changes closely so that we may plan our programs accordingly and safely. 

Our most common weather concern is heat, as summer temperatures in Los Angeles often reach 90 + degrees. To safely run an outdoor camp in these conditions, we have the following protocols in place: 

• Firstly, our camp starts early in the day at 8:30 am, which allows our classes to get hiking before the midday heat sets in. 
• Additionally, the trails/parks we choose for summer locations all have significant shady areas that counselors are aware of, and many also have water (ex. waterfalls, shallow creeks) that students can splash around in. 
• Our counselors carry extra sunscreen, a combined 10+ Liters of extra water to refill students’ water bottles and spray bottles/squirt guns to provide cooling mists for the kids. 
• All of our field staff are First Aid and CPR certified with many possessing advanced medical certifications, including Wilderness First Aid. During training, we specifically go over heat and environmental medical issues to ensure our staff take reasonable steps to support students’ safety and health during our programs. 
• Overall, our summer classes manage to beat the heat and have a blast at the same time!

We will relocate and/or reschedule in cases of extreme heat or other dangerous conditions. If we cannot reschedule, we will provide applicable credits or refunds (please refer to our Cancellation & Refund Policies).

We do not all partial enrollment in ‘Our Place’ Summer Camp programs unless otherwise specified. 

We will allow partial enrollment for Fall and Winter ‘Our Place’ Holiday Breaks. 

All of our locations are setup to be as convenient for our community as possible while also providing stimulating and engaging outdoor classrooms to support our programs and organizational mission.

Program location info is shared on the Thursday or Friday before your programming. This is our procedure because as a dynamic outdoor program Biocitizen LA must consider a variety of factors such as weather, safety, student’s ages and hiking abilities. The lead teacher of your group will send all pertinent information regarding pick-up, drop-off, locations, and itinerary in their introductory email on Thursday or Friday.

Though we may revisit the same locations, every visit is unique and worthwhile. Through our intentional programming, we aim to foster a deep and lasting relationship with our outdoor classrooms. Every subsequent visit is simply time to further our bond and relationship to place. We believe, that returning to the same location multiple times is actually a privilege and opportunity to further a relationship and build-upon previous experiences. There is always something new to see and to learn! We commonly have students enroll in multiple consecutive weeks during summer and just want to come back for more!

Moreover, our educators utilize a far-reaching compendium of activities and approaches to ensure that each day is fun, dynamic and engaging!

In terms of a gear list, your lead teacher will reach out to you the Friday before the start of your session to go over gear, schedule, and location. Sometimes, gear will be dependent on the locations you visit, i.e. water shoes for a creek. However, below is a general list of what we usually recommend to have prepared for gear:

Required Camper Supplies

• 32oz. Water bottle (we will have a water bag for refills)
• Filling Snacks & Hearty Lunch
• Mask (x2) – well-fitting masks that are easy to breathe with and don’t slip down the face
• Quick Dry clothing if possible, as 100% cotton gets wet/sweaty and stays that way all day
• Positive and Responsible attitudes!

Optional Camper Supplies

• Personal bottle of hand Sanitizer (small bottle, we have extra as well)
• Binoculars
• Extra Bandana
• Magnifying Glass
• Drawing utensils (~10 max)
• On water days: Bathing suits under their clothing

We take COVID safety very seriously, and have a set of COVID Policies and Protocols to ensure the protection and safety of all our students and staff. All of our staff is fully vaccinated, but we will follow our protocols for maximum safety until further notice.

Due to COVID, families are responsible for dropping off and picking up students for Our Place Summer Camp and School/Holiday camps.The lead teacher of the group will send out an email with GPS links to all the pick-up and drop-off locations by the Friday before the start of your student’s Session. The locations are dependent on the activities scheduled.

For programs that do utilize a Biocitizen LA van, all passengers must wear a mask.

We have regional staff, meaning there’s a cohort who almost exclusively teach in West/Northeast LA/SFV programming. Once registration closes for a week, we will make multiple groups if needed based on age ranges and hiking abilities. In general, we aim to have even gender representing male and female identifying teachers. If there is a specific concern about one of your children having a teacher of the same gender identity or pronouns, we are happy to try and make it happen!

All of our staff leading teams have the same level of credentials achieved before day one of summer programming:

• All staff have adult/child CPR/AED/First Aid training
• Are proficient in executing, teaching, and enforcing Leave No Trace ethics 
• Have previous experience with childcare and or education
• Have degrees in related fields from child development, biological sciences, psychology, to environmental studies.
• Undergo weeklong pre-program training as well as continual staff development meetings throughout the program season
• Undergo CA mandated background checks and a national sex offender background check 
• Additionally, over half of our summer staff have typically served 1 season or more with us

Biocitizen LA has transitioned to ACTIVE, a registration management software, that will place you on the waitlist during the registration process if a session is full–you must complete the registration form and process to join the waitlist, but you will not be charged for the session yet. In the event that a spot opens up for you, an admin team member will register you for the session through ACTIVE, and you will receive an email receipt from ACTIVE to confirm your enrollment. 

When you are registered from the waitlist, you will have an outstanding balance in your ACTIVE account. Here are a few options to access your account to pay any balances:

1. Log into your account through active.com with your email and password.
2. Click “Manage your online account” at the bottom of any ACTIVE email receipt.
3. Access your account with this link: https://campsself.active.com/biocitizenincca

If you encounter any issues paying your account balances, please reach out to our admin team!

Private pods must have a minimum of 8 students. All Biocitizen LA groups have a maximum of 15 students.

We typically form groups based on age and ability dynamics from a master roster of enrollments, which does not guarantee student groupings even if they are siblings.  close time period Please submit requests for siblings or friends to be in the same program group by emailing registration.la@biocitizen.org no later than *48 hours prior to program start date and time. *If your program start date and time is on a Monday, please send by Friday at noon to account for the days we are out of office over weekends. Thank you!

There are a few transportation models for ASE, dependent on the type of program you join (i.e. general ASE, a private pod, or a school pod).Refer to the program information for the transportation model of your ASE pod: 

1. Walking Model – we walk from the school to a nearby outdoor classroom! Pick up is either at the outdoor classroom or back on campus. 
2. Van Model – When school gets out, we’ll drive in our Biocitizen van to a nearby outdoor space! All Van Drivers have a Commercial (Class C) Driver’s License and have been highly trained for this component of our program. For safety during COVID-19, we will follow van protocols until further notice: 
   1. All staff and kids will be double-masked 
   2. Windows will be down at all times
   3. All staff are fully vaccinated
   4. We will be in vans for no longer than ~20 minutes

For programs that do utilize a Biocitizen LA van, all passengers must wear a mask.

We typically form groups based on age and ability dynamics from a master roster of enrollments, which does not guarantee student groupings even if they are siblings. You may submit friend/sibling requests on the ACTIVE registration form as you sign up for a program. 

If you do not include your friend request during registration, please submit requests for siblings or friends to be in the same program group by emailing registration.la@biocitizen.org no later than *48 hours prior to program start date and time.

*If your program start date and time is on a Monday, please send by Thursday at noon to account for the days we are out of office over weekends. Thank you!