BALL FOUND NEAR POND LED TO BOY’S BODY

Three-year-old in care of family member had been reported missing.

BOCA RATON — A ball left near the edge of a pond in suburban Boca Raton led authorities to discover the body of a 3-year-old boy who drowned there Sunday afternoon, the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office said.

Investigators have not disclosed the child’s name. He died at a hospital after being pulled from the water behind a home in Meadow Lakes, a neighborhood of single-family homes west of State Road 7 near Southwest 18th Street.

The circumstances that led to the child’s’ death remained under investigation Monday afternoon, sheriff ’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

Prior to the drowning, the boy had been under the care of a family member, she said. The child was reported missing, and the discovery of the ball led Palm Beach County Fire Rescue divers to search the waters. They found the child, who was rushed to the hospital, authorities said.

At least four other children ages 6 or younger have drowned this year in Palm Beach County, according to records from the Florida Department of Children Families. DCF does not investigate every child death, and it was not immediately clear whether the agency will investigate Sunday’s drowning.

In September, a 4-year-old boy died a week after being pulled from a pool in a community west of Greenacres. In August, a 3-yearold boy drowned in his family’s pool in central Palm Beach County while his father slept. Authorities say the toddler appeared to have been in the pool for longer than 30 minutes.

A 1-year-old Palm Springs girl drowned in a Palm Beach pool in June while visiting family. In February, a 6-year-old boy with autism got out of a screened-in patio in a different suburban Boca Raton community. He was found face down in a body of water and died six days later.

According to the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, drowning is the leading the cause of unintentional deaths for children between the ages of 1 and 4 and the second-leading cause through age 14.

Physical barriers, door locks and alarms can increase safety for homes with children, said Anna Stewart, manager of the Palm Beach County Drowning Prevention Coalition.

“You want to have as many mechanisms and layers of protection in place as possible,” she said.

Stewart also recommended that all children take swimming lessons. In some places, water-acclimation classes are offered to children as young as 6 months old, she said.

“You’re never too young and you’re never too old to learn how to swim,” she said.