Act No. 722
The Riley Bourgeois Act
With extensive lobbying and overwhelming support throughout the state of Louisiana we were able to get The Riley Bourgeois Act passed in 2022. The law makes it mandatory that all students in kindergarten through 12th grade must receive instructions on water safety as part of their curriculum in the state of Louisiana.
State of Louisiana
The State of Louisiana sited that there were 24 infant drowning deaths in the state in 2020. In addition, for every child that drowns, another eight children receive emergency care for non-fatal drownings
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17
Louisiana Childhood Drownings in 2019
24
Louisiana Childhood Drownings in 2020
25
Louisiana Childhood Drownings in 2021
Louisiana found that 96% of drowning victims could not swim, 72% were unsupervised, and 54% died in water that hadn’t been fenced off. It found that 60% drowned in a pool, hot tub or spa.
Looking at all drownings including adults, the CDC said Louisiana had the nation’s third-highest rate, with about 2.2 drowning deaths per 100,000 residents
Nationwide, only birth defects cause more deaths than drowning among children aged 1 through 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among children from ages 1 through 14, drowning is the No. 2 cause of unintentional injury death, after motor vehicle crashes, the CDC reports.
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Interested in learning how The Riley Bourgeois Act can be passed in your state?
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