Zero Drownings Miami-Dade Initiative

The Zero Drownings Miami-Dade Initiative is a new and innovative multicomponent, countywide drowning prevention program utilizing key community partnerships [see below list of partners] to increase water safety for children and families in Miami-Dade. Program components include developing, operating, and funding a long-term, large-scale safety net for children by coordinating and providing essential swim safety lessons, during the school day. It also includes a family engagement and education component on water safety for parents/guardians of children enrolled in the program, and a community-wide water safety campaign on the importance of drowning prevention.

According to the Florida Department of Health, more children ages 1 to 9 die from drowning than any other cause of death in Miami-Dade. The rates of deaths by drowning are high in Miami-Dade County due to multiple open points of access to water (e.g. ocean, canals, lakes) year-round. Teaching swim safety and survival techniques to young children safeguards their lives and also fosters a healthier, more connected and resilient community.

The Zero Drownings Miami-Dade Collaborative envisions a Miami-Dade where children from all neighborhoods, abilities, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds learn essential drowning prevention techniques that will make them safer and inspire them to respect and have affinity for the water that is a vital part of our community. The plan is to cyclically expand the program each year so that it will reach 20,000 children annually starting in 2026-2027 school year and beyond. Zero Drownings Miami-Dade will reduce and aims to ultimately eliminate accidental drownings.

Yes. The high risk of drowning for children with autism has been recognized and emphasis will be given to serving this population and included as part of the community water safety awareness campaign. The Zero Drownings Miami-Dade Collaborative Group is working with partner organizations with specific expertise serving children with disabilities to design the program.

Water Safety Instructors, who are certified by the American Red Cross and work with the County, municipal, and private learn-to-swim providers, will teach the classes. All curriculum is evidence-based and follows the best practices in water safety provided by the American Red Cross. The student-to-instructor ratio is a maximum of 1 to 6, meaning that for every six children in the group water safety class, there is at least one instructor.

Students in the selected classrooms will be notified by their teacher and if their parent/guardian completes all required registration forms by the assigned deadline, they will participate in the program. A new family friendly registration, program information and data collection system is currently under development and will be available prior to our fall classes.The school or program will arrange for age-appropriate transportation for the students, who will be transported to a preselected participating pool near their school. The swim lessons will be 10 school days in a row, for 30 minutes, and will include safety education in addition to in-water instruction. Program materials will be available in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.

Please make sure to pack your child’s swimsuit, towel, and any other required supplies or materials. A limited number of back-up swimsuits will be available for use, only in case-by-case situations.

Contact your local Learn-to-Swim Provider for traditional swim classes for your children. Afterschool and summer swim classes provided by Miami-Dade Parks are listed under “aquatics.” 

With the tragic cases of child drownings in our community, we recognized that there were successful models of large-scale drowning prevention programs and we decided that no more time should pass without addressing this issue in our own county.

Zero Drownings Miami-Dade will be offered beginning in the fall of the 2024 school year.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools kindergarteners, at preselected schools chosen by District staff, as well as 4- and 5-year-olds at select county HeadStart sites and The Children’s Trust-funded Thrive-by-5 centers, will be transported to the nearest participating water safety instruction program for 10 school days in a row, for 30-minute group swim classes.

The water safety educational piece of Zero Drownings Miami-Dade will be offered to the families of enrolled children.

All residents of Miami-Dade County will have access to the water safety campaign and we encourage ALL residents and visitors to do their part to join the Zero Challenge and prevent child drowning deaths.

An Office of Drowning Prevention has been created within Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department (PROS), that will serve as the logistics hub, coordination and operations base of the initiative.

The Children’s Trust is the primary funder of the program and works with Miami-Dade County Office of the Mayor and The Miami Foundation to continue to secure additional private and public funding to operate the program. Fellow current funders are the American Red Cross, United Way Miami, The Edu Foundation, and the Templeton Family Foundation. By a resolution of the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners sponsored by District 3 Commissioner Keon Hardemon, and passed unanimously by the Board, Miami-Dade County will also help support the program financially in the future.

The scientific evidence shows that participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce drowning risk by 88% (Brenner, Taneja, Haynie, Trumble, Qian, et al., Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine 2009) and studies also show that drowning prevention programs must be multi-component to be effective (Primary and Secondary Drowning Interventions, International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 2015, 9, 89-101). This study meets those criteria and also has a built-in sustainability component.

Please email the Office of Drowning Prevention at: [email protected].