As a swim instructor for elementary school kids, it was clear to me that Florida’s swim voucher program needed to provide access to swim instruction for elementary school kids. Under-resourced and autistic kids tend to learn to swim a little later and the system was leaving them behind.
This led me to initiate legislation to make this a reality with Florida Rep. Kim Kendall and Florida Senator Clay Yarborough. I shared my experience as a volunteer swim instructor and explained why the adjustment to the swim voucher eligibility age is vitally important to Florida's kids. Drowning is the number one cause of death among Florida kids and swim instruction targeted at the appropriate age level can make a big difference. I principally teach kids to swim that are 4-8 years old and this is the age consistent with the YMCA’s national guidelines for swim instruction and those also for the American Academy of Pediatrics (the AAP). The AAP has stated that kids under 1 are too young to learn to swim and drownings at this age level cannot be prevented by lessons as about 75% of drownings occur in bathtubs and not while swimming.
So just as kids are able to learn to swim on their own at about 4 years old, Florida’s swim voucher program ended. This is especially important as an increasing number of drowning deaths are kids with autism, and they tend to be a little older when they drown. In fact, ⅓ of the 105 kids that drowned in Florida last year were autistic.
Our bill (SB428 and HB85) unanimously passed in every committee and in the full house and senate. It was recently signed into law by Governor DeSantis!
Florida TaxWatch even named our bill a top 10 priority this past legislative session.
Access to swim instruction is now a reality for under-resourced elementary school kids in Florida!
We are now replicating this initiative in California. Youth drownings are the number one cause of death for CA kids and we want to make a difference! We recently established Splash at the CrossRoads School for Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles and they are teaching water safety to elementary school kids!
