Katasha and Hudson Roberts at their home in Shepherdsville(Satchel Walton / LPM)Hudson Roberts knows the basics of how to take care of himself. The 10-year-old goes to school and tennis lessons with an insulin pump on one arm and blood glucose monitor on the other. That’s generally enough to kee p his blood sugar levels in a safe range. He can tell based on his mood when it gets too high or low.“He's 10, but he’s had diabetes since he was two. He’s pretty attuned to what his body needs,” said Katasha Roberts, Hudson’s mother.But he still needs adult assistance, such as inputting numbers to his pump so it releases insulin after he eats.Earlier this month at a camp at the Northeast Family YMCA, Hudson briefly lost the supplies from his diabetes bag. A counselor later found his fruit snacks and backup medical equipment at the bottom of his backpack. A few days later, the program disenrolled Hudson, saying staff could not keep him safe, and his family scrambled to find alternate childcare arrangements.“[I felt] sad,” Hudson said. “I already had two good friends.”The YMCA of Greater Louisville is one of the area’s largest providers of childcare and activities. Its 2024 impact report states that 9,000 kids attended before and after-school care at Y programs, and another 5,400 kids attended its summer day camp. Hudson was one of those kids.Childcare costs have risen faster than inflation for decades, and finding summer activities can be challenging for kids with conditions that require extra attention. Previous legal settlements under the Americans with Disabilities Act have required summer camps, including the Y, to provide certain accommodations for type 1 diabetes (T1D).Adam Johnson says that camps in the area are “a mixed bag” in their ability to manage T1D. Johnson is the executive director of Camp Hendon, which operates weekend and week-long retreats in Lyndon for kids and teenagers with T1D. Johnson said it can be a struggle to join programs where people know less about the disease, and that a lot of his campers come feeling isolated.“Kids that live with type 1 diabetes are typically the only kid in their school, and definitely their friend group, that has diabetes,” Johnson said. “We heard a kid last year who came to one of our evening events, and she said, ‘Mom, this is the first time I didn’t feel like I slowed everybody down.’”Kentucky did not report state-level data on T1D in the most recent CDC dataset. Nationally, about 2.1 million Americans have T1D, including around .6% of the adult population.The YMCA said in an email to Hudson’s parents that Y employees would need “specialized medical training” to support him.Danielle Augustin, the executive director of the Kentucky Diabetes Network, disagreed with that assessment in an interview with LPM News. She said the plan of care Hudson’s parents provided the YMCA was typical for T1D.Augustin also has T1D, and said it is disheartening to be excluded from activities because of it.“Any time you’re faced with additional barriers on top of the ones that you live with every single day, living with type 1 diabetes, it just makes things exponentially harder, and it can be very, very discouraging,” Augustin said.In response to a detailed list of questions, a YMCA spokesperson gave a general statement.It read, in part, that the YMCA of Greater Louisville “is aware of the circumstances involving the Roberts family and the Northeast Family YMCA summer camp.”“The safety, well-being, and protection of every child in our care remain our highest priorities. We take all matters involving the children and families we serve seriously and are committed to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment,” spokesperson Blair Downs wrote.The exact causes of T1D are unknown, but genetic factors and environmental exposures are primary. Unlike type 2 diabetes, which accounts for the large majority of U.S. diabetes cases, type 1 is unrelated to diet or activity level.Katasha Roberts said she hopes their experience can be an example of the challenges faced by children who have T1D through no factors they can control, and to show Hudson that his parents will try to make things right for him.After a week spent mostly at home, Hudson started a martial arts camp Monday. ...read more read less