{"id":217557,"date":"2026-05-02T10:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/217557\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:51:10","slug":"at-schools-citywide-nyc-students-are-transforming-playgrounds-and-themselves-the-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/217557\/","title":{"rendered":"At Schools Citywide, NYC Students Are Transforming Playgrounds \u2014 and Themselves \u2013 The 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pink basketball courts, a hair braiding station and a butterfly garden. These are just some of the innovative ideas that New York City schoolchildren came up with when they were actively engaged in the planning and design process to transform their schoolyards into vibrant public spaces that better serve themselves and their communities.<\/p>\n

Anyone familiar with NYC knows that while it has some of the most iconic green spaces in the world, from Central Park<\/a> to the High Line<\/a>, it also has a shocking number of neighborhoods with almost no green space at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is where schoolyard transformations come in. Every NYC neighborhood has a public school, and most of them have outdoor yards. For years, various initiatives have taken those city-owned spaces, often covered in asphalt, and opened them up to millions of students and nearby residents for recreation and relaxation.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the Trust for Public Land and other partners have transformed more than 350 schoolyards in 26 states<\/a> \u2014 including New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Minnesota and California \u2014 over the past 25 years, playing a vital role capturing stormwater to reduce flooding<\/a> and combatting the urban heat island effect<\/a> by planting trees and replacing blacktop with permeable surfaces.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another, unexpected benefit from this work. It turns out that involving students in the design process has been a powerful lever for learning and leadership, unlocking children\u2019s creativity while planting seeds of inspiration and ambition.<\/p>\n

Engaging students as young as third grade gives them something they rarely experience elsewhere: genuine agency. For many, it may be the first time they\u2019ve had a real say in shaping their everyday environment \u2014 and their first real encounter with collective decision-making and the democratic process.<\/p>\n

It gives them purpose and ownership and helps them see how their input matters through consultation with an array of stakeholders, from school principals and city agencies to PTAs and community groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our design process starts with a schoolwide assembly where the project is explained and the outcomes explored. That is followed by a survey where every student can offer ideas about what the new playground might look like.<\/p>\n

About 30 student volunteers are then selected to make up the design team \u2014 in cases where an elementary, middle and high school share a schoolyard, the design team will have representatives from all three levels.<\/p>\n

\"\"Before and after of P.S. 366 (Trust for Public Land)<\/p>\n

During four sessions over a three-month period, students measure their schoolyards, visit completed projects for ideas and interact with landscape architects, general contractors, engineers and other professionals about the project \u2014 getting invaluable exposure to career opportunities along the way.<\/p>\n

We emphasize to the students the importance of making the schoolyard design work<\/p>\n

for everybody. They figure out what they want during the day, but they also have survey input from parents and other community members about how they\u2019d like to use the space after school and on weekends.<\/p>\n

The kids are often the ones who come up with the most innovative and impactful ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a Bronx elementary school, girls loved playing basketball, but boys often took over both of the playground\u2019s courts at recess. So the girls asked if one of the courts could be painted pink. Of course, anyone could play there. But the boys tended to avoid it, and the girls finally had an equal chance to play basketball in their yard.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pink basketball court in the reimagined playground at P.S. 366 in the Bronx. (Trust for Public Land)<\/p>\n

At a Harlem elementary school, students wanted a space for braiding hair during recess, so they designed one: a two-tiered seating area built for exactly that. It\u2019s the kind of idea no adult would have thought to ask for.<\/p>\n

\"\"P.S. 242 students using hair-braiding station at their student-designed community playground in Manhattan. (Trust for Public Land)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at an elementary school in Queens, students wanted a wildlife viewing area, so they selected plants known to attract butterflies \u2014 such as lavender and Joe Pye Weed \u2014 and planted them in the schoolyard. They added birdhouses and bat boxes, too, turning a concrete corner into a small urban sanctuary.<\/p>\n

The payoff of these transformed spaces extends well beyond recess, yielding numerous positive effects in the classroom. There\u2019s research showing that exposure to nature can help enhance cognitive performance and reduce the symptoms of ADHD<\/a>. It can also lead to improved behavior and fewer discipline problems<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a fantastic perk for any public school. Now, imagine multiplying that across an entire city. In New York, more than 240 schoolyards have been reimagined throughout the five boroughs, but there are about 950 citywide, so there are plenty more waiting to be transformed.<\/p>\n

The potential is enormous \u2014 not just for more equitable access to green space, but for young people to discover that they can make their voices heard, make a difference and actively shape the world around them.<\/p>\n

Did you use this article in your work?<\/p>\n

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We\u2019d love to hear how The 74\u2019s reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers. Tell us how<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Pink basketball courts,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18281,9,24,56,63,65,64,299,85791,78919],"class_list":["post-217557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-commentary","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-opinion","tag-school-climate","tag-student-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}