Drowning prevention.

Existing law, the Neng Thao Drowning Prevention Safety Act, authorizes specified organizations to provide informational materials, in electronic or hardcopy form, to a public school regarding specified topics relating to drowning prevention. Existing law authorizes, beginning with the 2024–25 school year, upon receipt of the informational materials, a public school to provide the informational materials to parents, legal guardians, or caregivers of pupils at the time the pupil enrolls at the school and at the beginning of each school year. This bill would revise and recast various provisions of the Neng Thao Drowning Prevention Safety Act to, among other things, prohibit the distribution of these informational materials from taking place later than the end of the first week of May in the year of distribution. The bill would authorize an authorized school official, as defined, to consider specified factors when selecting which drowning or injury prevention organization, as defined, to work with. In order to provide informational materials to a public school, the bill would require a drowning or injury prevention organization to, among other requirements, provide written evidence to an authorized school official demonstrating that the informational materials provided by the drowning or injury prevention organization align with the drowning, drowning prevention, water safety, and swim skills lesson access information of at least one expert organization, as defined. The bill would also deem swim instruction provided by certain qualified and certified persons, and open to children of all ages, an essential public health service, as provided.