NORTH TEXAS – Water is a great way to beat the heat right now, but a fun outing with the kids can turn into a tragedy in just a few minutes.
According to the Texas Department of Family and Community Protection, 38 children have drowned in Texas so far this year.
Drowning deaths among children under 15 increased 12% from 2020 to 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, according to a new federal report.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, drowning also remains the leading cause of accidental death in children under 5.
“Approximately 400 people die each year, 6,500 are sent to emergency rooms and some suffer permanent injuries,” said Alex Hohen Sulik, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The CPSC report also highlighted the disproportionate risk for swimming-age children in the black community: Of the 71% of drowning deaths among children under 15 where race was identified, African-American children accounted for 23% of drowning deaths.
“The best indicator of whether a child can swim is whether the parents can swim,” says Hoen-Sallick, “so it's important to break this cycle. If you can't swim as a parent, it's not too late to take lessons with your child.”
CPSC encourages families with young children and people from historically excluded communities to prioritize water safety this summer by taking the following actions:
Never leave children unattended in or around water. Always designate an adult water supervisor. Supervisors should not read, text, use the phone, or engage in other distracting activities. This warning applies not only to pools and spas, but also to bathtubs, buckets, decorative ponds, and fountains. If you own a pool or spa, install barriers or other layers of protection to keep unsupervised children out of the water. Homes can use door alarms, pool covers, and auto-closing and auto-latching devices on fence gates and doors leading to the pool. Learn how to perform CPR on children and adults. Many communities offer online CPR training. Learn to swim and teach your children to swim. Keep children away from pool drains, pipes, and other openings to prevent them from becoming trapped. Make sure any pool or spa you use has drain covers that meet federal safety standards. If you're not sure, ask your pool service provider about safer drain covers.
Learning to swim is a life-saving skill, but not all children have access to water.
“Swim lessons are very expensive,” said Theodore Lee, aquatics director at Tankproof, a nonprofit that provides free swimming lessons to children in underserved areas. “It's not that we're not concerned about the safety of our kids, it's that we have other things in life to worry about.”
That's where Tankproof comes in. The organization hosts swim schools in various cities, most recently for a week at the Texas Pool in Plano.
“If you know your child doesn't want to get in the water, get in with them and stay within reach at all times. That way, since it's a pool, you're close by if something happens,” Lee says.
See Marin said she feels more at peace this summer since her daughter completed her lessons at Tankproof.
“She's confident in the water,” Marin said. “She's not scared.”
The goal is not only to keep kids safe and having fun, but to develop skills and passions that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
“Once they overcome their fear of swimming and become comfortable in the water, I think they grow up to feel like they can overcome anything,” Lee says.
Tankproof isn't the only organization offering free or low-cost swim lessons in North Texas. For more information, contact the following organizations:
The latest data from the CPSC shows that for children under 15 in the United States:
From 2019 to 2021, an average of 358 pool- and spa-related drownings were reported per year, with 75% of those involving children under the age of 5. There were 380 child drownings in 2021, a 12% increase from the 339 reported the previous year. From 2021 to 2023, there is an estimated average of 6,500 pool- and spa-related nonfatal drownings treated in hospital emergency departments (EDs) per year.
Additionally, the report places special emphasis on the risk of drowning among children under the age of five.
In 2023, an estimated 77% of all pool- and spa-related nonfatal drowning injuries resulting in emergency care involved children under the age of 5. Between 2019 and 2021, there were an average of 269 pool- and spa-related fatal drownings in children under the age of 5, which represents approximately 75% of the total average number of fatal drownings in children under the age of 15.
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Caroline Vandergriff
