Florida’s Child Drowning Crisis: The ZAC Foundation Co-Founder Karen Cohn Speaks Out in Orlando Sentinel

For World Drowning Prevention Day, The ZAC Foundation’s Co-Founder, Karen Cohn, joined American Red Cross’s Connie Harvey in an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel addressing Florida’s escalating child drowning crisis.

Florida’s Child Drowning Numbers Are Rising

Drowning claims an estimated 300,000 lives globally each year, with children and young people most at risk. Florida saw a record 120 child drownings in 2025, a toll that has climbed steadily since 94 in 2022. So far in 2026, 74 children in Florida have drowned, 55 of them younger than 4, with Osceola, Miami-Dade, and Orange counties reporting the highest numbers.

New Law Expands Swim Lesson Access for Florida Kids

Karen and Connie pointed to Florida Senate Bill 428, which took effect July 1 and expanded the state’s swim lesson voucher program to cover children up to age 7, as a meaningful step toward closing access gaps. This is particularly important for Black children, who face disproportionate drowning risk due to long-standing inequities in access to pools, lessons, and water safety education.

They also highlighted last summer’s Orange County Drowning Prevention Action Plan as a model for community-driven progress, having delivered swim lessons to more than 5,000 children and adults.

Why Pool Fencing Matters

Karen and Connie emphasized that most child drownings in Florida — 84% of this year’s total — happen when a child isn’t expected to be in the water. This underscores the need for layers of protection like four-sided isolation fencing and alarmed doors and windows to prevent a child from unsupervised wandering.

Read Karen and Connie’s full op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel.