Questions linger as state law to improve pool safety for kids takes effect July 1
TAMPA - Unanswered questions surrounding a new swim voucher program for young children in Florida loom as a new state law supporting it takes effect July 1. The new statewide swim voucher program is geared towards helping families that fall within 200 percent of the federal poverty line to have access to swim lessons for children under 4 years old.
The program will be administered by the Department of Health, partnering with local nonprofits or swim lesson providers to offer the swim lesson vouchers. Locally, the Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA says it will participate.
"The earlier you can start them, the more often you can get them in the water in those lessons. The quicker they're going to progress through, feel safe, and be able to get those life-saving skills," Lacey Boldman, Associate Director of Drowning Prevention at Tampa Metro Area YMCA, said.
But Boldman said there are still questions surrounding the program.
"How the Department of Health is actually going to roll out providing the vouchers to the families, how they're qualifying. We don't have a lot of that information yet," she said.
It's also unclear how many lessons the vouchers will cover.
"[For context] Our group lessons right now for members is $70 a session and for non-members it's $120," Boldman said.
FOX 13 reached out to the Florida Department of Health about those questions, but has not received a response. The Hillsborough DOH said it is also awaiting more information from the Florida DOH and believes at this time, the program may launch after July 1.
Boldman said the Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA has begun to collect the information of interested families on a waitlist. She said, "They can call our main number, or they can email drowningprevention@tampaymca.org if they are interested."
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