CARMICHAEL, Calif. — According to the USA Swimming Foundation, 79% of children who come from households with an annual income less than $50,000 have little-to-no swimming knowledge.
The Carmichael Recreation and Park District has teamed up with DARTSwim School to start a swimming school partnership aimed at reducing the number of children living in Carmichael who don't know how to swim through a partial scholarship program.
"Having those basic water safety skills is just like telling your kids, 'make sure you don't go in a car with strangers,' right? Accidents can happen quickly," DART swim instructor Adriana Contreras said. "There's always that risk for accidents unless you've enrolled them in formal swim lessons."
The USA Swimming Foundation reports the number of drownings could be reduced by 88% should children learn to swim. The California Department of Developmental Services reports the most recent 10-year average of children drowning is around 51 children for only newborns to 5-year-olds in California.
"What we see is the systemic cycle of parents don't know how to swim or never had the opportunity to learn growing up, and so that decreases the amount of chances that their kids are going to learn to swim," Contreras said.
Swim lessons start June 14 and Contreras said they had a lot of interested parents sign up for the payment assistance program.
"We have plenty of people from the Natomas area, Elk Grove area, reaching out, saying that they were able to finally get their kids into swim lessons and they couldn't previously afford it," Contreras said.
The Carmichael swim program allows for partial payments for parents trying to get their children to swim, and parents can sign up on the Carmichael Recreation and Park District website. The partial scholarships for Carmichael residents eligible would be 50%, bringing the cost to $37.50 per swimmer. Non-Carmichael residents could be eligible for a 30% cost reduction, bringing the cost to $52.50 per swimmer.
Some other swim schools in the area could cost between $75 and $150 depending on how many classes the student takes, the age of the student, and the number of children in the class. At the DART Swim School, it would normally cost $75 for a 6-year-old to sign up for a class, and at the Sacramento YMCA, it could cost $85 for members or $110 for non-members to sign-up a child of the same age.
"I'll be honest, I'm not sure that we can accommodate everybody this year, is the sad thing, but we are going to work to expand the program next year for sure," Contreras said.
The USA Swimming Foundation offers grants to help swimming schools provide similar programs to what the Carmichael Recreation and Park District made possible. The application process has closed for 2021, but swim schools in the Sacramento region could start applying as soon as October for the 2022 swim season.
Conteras said the demand for swimming lessons is high; the DART school has so far seen children signing up this year who couldn't learn last year, are newly interested this year, and need a refresher from their swim lessons before the coronavirus pandemic.
"And so as you're returning to the waterways, and to the pools and stuff, you might think your kid remembers how to swim, but it's been two years, and they've forgotten, so they might need a refresher," Contreras added.
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