PORTLAND AP) – The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has issued emergency standards for day-care centers that operate swimming pools following the drowning of a 3-year-old boy in Westbrook.

The minimum standards, which go into effect June 1, include a requirement that at least two day-care workers be on duty during swim programs. One of those would be a certified water safety attendant, in addition to a swimming instructor. The state moved forward to issue rules covering 300 child-care facilities with water-related activities before the summer swimming season.

The Westbrook incident happened on March 26 during a swimming lesson in a 3-foot-deep pool at Koala Child Care. Only one swim instructor was on duty when Andrew Thurston was spotted floating in the water during a swimming lesson.

State officials found fault with the day care but conceded there were no state regulations covering swimming pools at day care facilities.

“To say these would have prevented the death is very difficult to say,” said Catherine Cobb, director of DHHS’s Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services. “I think the chances are more likely a child would not have drowned.”

The rules also cover field trips to pools or the beach, and licensed child care provided in a home that has a swimming pool.

The rules set requirements for staff training, parental permission and posting of pool safety rules. Pools also must be built and maintained within guidelines established for public pools by the Maine Center for Disease Control.

“I think kids will be much more protected under the rules that will be implemented here,” said Rep. Timothy Driscoll, D-Westbrook, who has sponsored legislation to have the rules adopted by the Legislature. “A lot of folks who own these day cares with swimming pools didn’t have any guidance about what they should do. That was part of the problem.”

Driscoll said he empathized with Andrew Thurston’s family. Before he was born, his brother and sister, 3 and 4 at the time, drowned after falling through ice.

“I can’t imagine any parent having to go through that process,” he said.