{"id":295525,"date":"2026-07-14T15:36:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295525\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:36:52","slug":"from-the-bronx-to-the-battery-more-funding-for-free-swim-lessons-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295525\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Bronx to the Battery, more funding for free swim lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Thousands more public school students will receive free swim lessons next year under new City Council<\/a> funding, part of a long-term effort to teach every second grader in New York City how to swim.<\/p>\n

The Council has allocated $1.5 million to the nonprofit group Wave Makers, which was first launched more than two years ago with funding from the Gray Foundation.<\/p>\n

With the additional funding, the program will expand from serving 6,000 to 9,000 public school<\/a> second graders.<\/p>\n

The initiative stemmed from legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Julie Menin<\/a>, who is now the Council speaker, and Shekar Krishnan, who at the time chaired the Parks Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwimming and water safety are life saving skills,\u201d Krishnan, who represents parts of Queens<\/a>, told The City Reporter. \u201cWe\u2019re reading every summer about drownings at the beach, about our youth in the water who don\u2019t know how to swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoKids swim at Manhattan’s Thomas Jefferson Pool on June 27. (Ed Reed \/ Mayoral Photography Office) <\/p>\n

Wave Makers teamed up with Asphalt Green, which operates public pools on the Upper East Side and Battery Park City, setting out to teach 2,000 kids how to swim. Within a year, the program had taught nearly 3,000 students and developed plans for expansion \u2013 with the total number of students now at 6,000.<\/p>\n

Asphalt Green partnered with other organizations to provide lessons at 15 pools across the city.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s long-term goal is to provide universal swim instruction for every second grader in New York City public schools<\/a>. A Wave Makers report earlier this year said it could cost around $45 million a year to expand to the estimated 70,000 public school second graders. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can teach every one of our second graders to swim every year and over time that just becomes a standard part of becoming a New York City public school kid,\u201d Jordan Brackett, Asphalt Green\u2019s CEO, told The City Reporter. \u201cYou learn to read, write, do arithmetic \u2014 and also learn to swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

One obstacle to expanding swim instruction is the limited availability of pools across the city, though Brackett said creative scheduling and reopening underused facilities could increase capacity. <\/p>\n

One public elementary school pool in East Harlem had sat unused since 2015 because of a crack. Asphalt Green paid for an architect to assess repairs, and it reopened in 2024.<\/a> Some CUNY campus pools, including the Olympic-sized one at Lehman College in The Bronx<\/a> \u2014 where the new funding will be announced Tuesday \u2014 were unused during parts of the school week.<\/p>\n

Wave Makers now uses the pool for lessons. <\/p>\n

Brackett said offering lessons during the school day is critical because it removes transportation and cost barriers for families.<\/p>\n

The report found that 61% of participating students had a parent or caregiver who could not swim, suggesting school-based instruction can help break generational barriers to swimming.<\/p>\n

Their research also found a \u201csweet spot\u201d of the number of swim sessions that solidified water safety ability and skill \u2014 between 25 and 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t just taught the kid a life skill that might help them save a life,\u201d Brackett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve taught them a little grit and resilience as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Honan covers New York City Hall for The City Reporter and is co-host of the FAQ NYC podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,4207,11985,75,36610,9,24,56,63,11304,72583,129,131,130,107598],"class_list":["post-295525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-children","tag-fun","tag-manhattan","tag-mayor-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-summer","tag-swimming-pool","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-thomas-jefferson-pool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295525","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=295525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}