Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a law to offer free swimming lessons to kids in Florida

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    A man swimming in the water

    Parents with young kids will soon be able to get their children free swimming lessons thanks to a new Florida law.

    For many parents, the very sound of splashing and swimmers taking a plunge into the deep end, can be very scary.

    Casey McGovern, a Fort Lauderdale mom, lost her 19-month-old daughter 15 years ago to a drowning accident in a backyard pool.

    “We were right there all the time,” Casey recalls. “It just so happened that afternoon, the gate was left open.”

    Casey started the McGovern Foundation and began pushing for water safety and kid-friendly swimming lessons with the international non profit organization, Every Child A Swimmer.

    “The stigma attached to it for so many years is that it only happens to parents of a certain demographic, and it doesn’t,” Casey told WFSU. “It can happen to anybody at any point.”

    Drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental deaths among children

    In Florida, where much of the state is surrounded by water, unintentional drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental deaths among children.

    According to the Florida Department of Health (DOH), Florida has led the nation in drowning deaths among kids between the ages of 1 and 4 years old.

    To combat this, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation (SB 544) Monday to create the state’s first swimming lesson voucher program for kids.

    Fiscal Policy Committee chair Sen. Travis Hutson, R-St. Augustine, listens to an answer from Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill about his Senate Bill 6B: Transportation of Inspected Unauthorized Aliens in the Fiscal Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Florida legislators are meeting in a two-week special session to take up a list of issues proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)

    It was proposed by Senator Travis Hutson, R-Palm Coast, who says swimming lessons saved his nephew from nearly drowning in a family pool.

    “Had he not gone through that program, who knows what would’ve happened,” said Hutson.

    The legislation covers lessons for families with kids aged 4 and under who make “less than 200% of the federal poverty level.” The voucher program will be managed by the state’s Department of Health. The agency will be responsible for establishing a network of swimming lesson providers in every county.

    A group of boys look on during a swimming lesson, Thursday, June 18, 2015, at Gwen Cherry Park in Miami. About 500 children, ages 6-14, enrolled in “Learn-to-Swim” classes at Miami-Dade Parks pools and tens of thousands of kids and adults at aquatic facilities around the world, were part of a simultaneous world-wide swimming lesson Thursday in an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for “The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson.” (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

    “Over here we do a junior lifeguard camp,” Bay County’s Beach Safety Division Director Daryl Paul said. “We take kids in, and we teach them for a couple days about what lifeguards do. We show them how we swim. You need to be exposed to the water. You need to be exposed to the water to learn how to swim.”

    The state is putting up $500,000 to get the new voucher program off the ground.

    The provision will go into effect July 1st.