With the July Fourth weekend approaching, a new campaign from Prevent Child Abuse Indiana is urging parents and caregivers to take a more proactive role in preventing child drownings.
The “Eyes on the Child: Water Safety” initiative highlights the importance of active, distraction-free supervision of children around pools, lakes, and other bodies of water. It also introduces a simple tool—called a Water Watcher Badge—to help adults clearly identify who is responsible for watching children at any given time.
“Kids are drowning and, and that's preventable in most cases,” said Jeff Wittman, director of Prevent Child Abuse Indiana. “Far too often, people can look around and, and say, ‘I thought they were watching. I thought somebody else was watching.’ And when it comes to children dying, we never want that to be an excuse.”
According to the Indiana Department of Health, 33 children between the ages of 1 and 10 died from drowning in the state between 2018 and 2021. Nationally, drowning remains the leading cause of injury-related death for children ages 1 to 4, according to the CDC.
Wittman says the campaign is especially urgent now.
“July has the highest number of drownings year after year,” he said. “We're just now entering into it. It's peak season for people to be in the water, around the water, uh, which means we have to keep our eyes even more closely on the water and the responsibility of supervising our children and our loved ones in those watery environments.”
The Water Watcher Badge is a laminated card worn on a lanyard. It designates one adult at a time as the sole person responsible for watching the children in or near water—free of distractions such as phones or side conversations.
“When I had this badge on, is to focus on watching my child or children in my care. That’s my only job. There should be no distractions… And when I take this badge off and pass it to somebody else, it becomes their job,” Wittman said.
Prevent Child Abuse Indiana is distributing the badges through its network of 56 local councils covering 64 Indiana counties, as well as through pool supply stores and marinas. Resources and badges are also available online at www.pcain.org.
Wittman emphasized that many drownings occur even when adults are present, and that tools like the badge are meant to eliminate confusion and encourage intentional supervision.
“Most of the drownings—88 percent, in fact—occur with at least one adult present,” he said. “So what that shows us is that we're just not doing a good enough job of keeping our eyes on our child.”
Prevent Child Abuse Indiana is a division of The Villages of Indiana, one of the state’s largest nonprofit agencies for family and child services.
