Billings YMCA Aquatics Director, Crystal Davis, devotes her days to teaching the finer points of swimming and safety. She says while teaching children to swim is important, it guarantees nothing.

"It's not the catch all. Even though your children may know how to swim, still they have to have a supervising adult around."

Another misconception is that a parent can multi-task while supervising a child in the water. "Parents often think that their child is going to yell for help so if they turn to grab something or if they are eating and not keeping their eyes on the pool, they're going to yell for help. But, they are not always going to yell for help. Sometimes there are silent drowning victims. They will go under without notice."

The Safe Kids U.S.A Coalition has come up with the "Water Watcher Program" which includes a badge for parents to wear while children are in the water, with the promise they won't take their eyes off the child, not even for a second.

Davis explains, "It says while wearing this tag, I agree to supervise children in the open water or pool, keeping them in sight at all times. It's just a reminder that they are not socializing or eating, they are just watching the children. Otherwise, every adult assumes someone is watching. And that's when a drowning can happen."

Davis emphasizes it only takes a split second for a child to drown, even if they know how to swim. And no distraction is worth losing a child's precious life.

"That's the tragic part about accidental deaths like this is that they're preventable. If you watch your children around the bathtub, in the pool wherever they are if they are around water, an adult needs to be designated to just watching the children."

To download a copy of the Water Watcher Card, click here.