Do you need special knowledge or permits to attend summer camp?
Going to camp can be a big deal and with the move towards specialized camps it can be hard to determine which is right for your child. They will be learning a lot of new things while they are at camp so you have to make sure that they are at a camp where what they are learning is at the right level. This means that your child may have to have certain knowledge in order to attend a specific camp.
In almost no instances will you need to have any permits to be able to attend summer camp. Really the only time this will be an issue is if you are sending your child to an international camp in which case a visa may be necessary to get into the other country. As for special skills this will vary depending on the camp that you are planning to send your child to. These days many camps offer specialized training and some of it can be at quite an advanced level. In these cases your child will need to have certain skills to be able to attend.
While some camps will require special skills it is important to realize that usually these camps are progressive. That is you can attend a camp that will teach you the skills one year and then the next attend a camp that requires those skills so that you can learn at a more advanced level. As a result regardless of what your child's current skill level you should have no trouble finding them a camp that is suitable for their current level of skills.
While you can almost always find a camp that your child can attend regardless of their skill level you are going to want to think about whether or not your child is ready to attend camp. For most kids the first time that they are away from home will be when they go to camp, not all of them are ready when they do go. It is important to realistically assess whether or not your child is ready and to make sure that they are prepared to attend camp before they go.
The other thing that you have to keep in mind is that you need to find a camp that is at the appropriate level for your child. This is especially true if you are sending him to a specialized camp like computer camp. If he ends up at a camp where he will be taught the same things that he learned the year before he will probably be bored. On the other hand if you send him to a camp that is over his head he will not enjoy himself either. Therefore you are going to have to determine your child's skill level and then find an appropriate camp.