Boy Scouts To Let Girls Become Cub Scouts, Earn Eagle Scout Rank

IRVING, TX —The Boy Scouts of America will start accepting girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year as it grapples with a sharp decline in membership. The organization also plans to create a new program for older girls using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts.

The plan, announced Wednesday, said Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be either all boys or all girls. The larger Cub Scout packs can choose whether to remain single gender or accept both genders. The program for older girls is expected to start in 2019 and will allow girls to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

Watch: Boy Scouts To Let Girls Become Cub Scouts, Earn Eagle Scout Rank

The Boy Scouts board of directors, which approved the plan unanimously in a meeting at the organization's headquarters in Texas, said the change was needed to provide more options for parents. (For more information on the Boy Scouts change and other Across America stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

"We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, the BSA's chief scout executive.

"The values of Scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example — are important for both young men and women," Surbaugh added.

Today the BSA opens a new chapter in our history w/a unanimous vote to welcome girls to Cub through Eagle Rank. https://t.co/CYl8tU1yJJ
— Mike Surbaugh (@BSAchief) October 11, 2017

The announcement follows many months of outreach by the BSA, which distributed videos and held meetings with the Boy Scout community to discuss the possibility of expanding girls' participation beyond existing programs, such as Venturing and Sea Scouts.

The Girl Scouts of the USA criticized the initiative, saying it strained the century-old bond between the two organizations. Girl Scout officials have suggested the BSA's move was driven partly by financial problems and a need to boost revenue.

Watch: Boy Scouts To Expand Girls' Participation Says Chief Scout Executive

In August, the president of the Girl Scouts accused the Boy Scouts of seeking to covertly recruit girls into their programs while disparaging the Girl Scouts' operations.

"I formally request that your organization stay focused on serving the 90 percent of American boys not currently participating in Boy Scouts ... and not consider expanding to recruit girls," wrote GSUSA President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan in a letter to the BSA's president, AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson.

The Girl Scouts, founded in 1912, and the BSA, founded in 1910, are among several major youth organizations in the U.S. experiencing sharp drops in membership in recent years. Reasons include competition from youth sports leagues, a perception by some families that they are old-fashioned and busy schedules that prompt some parents to despair of meeting all their children's obligations. For some families, scouting programs that welcome both boys and girls could be a welcome convenience.

As of March, GSUSA reported 1,566,671 youth members and 749,008 adult members, down from just over 2 million youth members and about 800,000 adult members in 2014. The Boy Scouts say current youth participation is about 2.35 million, down from 2.6 million in 2013 and more than 4 million in peak years of the past.

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Photo credit: Jake May/The Flint Journal - MLive.com via AP