AUSTIN, Texas — Lawmakers in the Texas Senate on Thursday passed a bill in honor of a 6-year-old girl who drowned in a Cedar Park pool nearly four years ago.
In June 2019, 6-year-old Cati DelaPeña was found at the bottom of a swimming pool, without a lifejacket, during a summer camp field trip. Her parents had told camp leaders that she could not swim and needed to wear a lifejacket.
"The staff knew that, you know, Cati looked like a normal little girl, she acted like a normal little girl, but she did have Down syndrome," Cati DelaPeña's father, John DelaPeña, told KVUE in 2021. "We asked about, you know, what kind of activities they did. They said, 'We do take pool trips twice a week.' We said, you know, 'Cati has Down syndrome, so she's got lower muscle tone, she can't swim.'"
House Bill 59, or "Cati's Law," would require child care organizations to get written notice from parents stating whether their child can swim and require staffers to put U.S. Coast Guard-approved lifejackets on those children.
John DelaPeña was alone in the Senate gallery during the vote on Thursday, with a picture of his daughter by his side.
The bill was amended on the Senate floor, so it has to go back to the House before it can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.