We’re halfway through swim season and still not all New Yorkers have access to their community swim spot. The recently repaired Astoria Pool is only able to accommodate a third of its capacity due to a lifeguard deficit. Brighton Beach has red flags indicating no guard is on duty even at peak hours.
For years our city has been challenged by a lack of programming and life-saving swim lessons due to a nationwide lifeguard shortage. This reduces capacity at public swim facilities and prevents public pools from offering lap swim for adults, youth swim lessons, and extended hours to help alleviate the heat as forecasters predict one of the five hottest summers on record in 2024.
Becoming a lifeguard is a rightfully strenuous endeavor, with current American Red Cross precertification competency requirements that include a 150-yard swim, continuous treading water without the use of hands, and a brick retrieval with eyes open underwater. The purpose of these rigorous precertification requirements is to ensure that a lifeguard candidate can complete courses that require 27 hours of in-class learning to obtain the necessary lifeguarding knowledge and learn how to best enter and exit the water to perform rescues, spinal injury management, CPR and first aid.
For NYC Parks however, a Red Cross Lifeguard Certification is not accepted as a certification to work at their pools. Instead, in order to be a lifeguard at any NYC Parks pool or beach, candidates must successfully complete the Municipal Lifeguard Training Program, which consists of 40+ hours training — nearly double the time requirement of the Red Cross. What’s more, these 40 hours of training are not conducted over a single work week, but rather over 16 weeks beginning in February.
Recent administrative changes made by the mayor and the parks commissioner allow for the city to modify the shallow water pool lifeguard qualifications and modernize vision requirements to be closer to state regulations and industry standards. This alleviated some of the restrictions and barriers to becoming a lifeguard, but these steps haven’t been sufficient enough to get more lifeguards in the stand this year. We propose these small but impactful reforms:
Reform #1: Shorten the program. The YMCA and other Red Cross programs offer multi-day intensives immediately before the summer season to certify guards to be employed by the start of the summer season in June. + POOL, where Nora is program director, launched a recent lifeguard certification initiative in partnership with Henry Street Settlement and Splash Fit Swim Club, certifying 20 lifeguards every weekend over a three-week period. While the 16-week NYC Parks certification is paid training, the idea of training several months without actually working likely causes some potential hires to look elsewhere.
Reform #2: Host certification programs year-round. The timing of NYC Parks tests in winter months is a disadvantage for students. When most qualified candidates are looking for work, the 16-week Municipal Training Program is nearly over, with no opportunities for incoming candidates to begin and complete training when guard jobs are most needed.
Reform #3: Invest in swim education. + POOL’s training program has demonstrated there is not a shortage of interest in becoming a lifeguard, but rather, a shortage of opportunities to train to become one. We were able to host 121 of those expressing interest in our free precertification courses, resulting in 64 lifeguard candidates who enrolled in the certification course. People want to work as a lifeguard, but few of those interested have the swimming skills needed to get into a certification class, so we need to build a pipeline that bridges this skills gap.
Reform #4: Share the data. It’s easy to say that NYC is the victim of a national lifeguard shortage, but it’s hard to know if the city is struggling with recruitment because data on those participating in training programs is not publicly available. Of the 64 people enrolled in + POOL’s certification course, 61 became certified lifeguards, representing a 98% pass rate.
These reforms, coupled with strides we have made in swim programming, such as the Wave Makers program launched in Jackson Heights to provide every second-grader with free learn-to-swim programming, will ensure our city is addressing the challenges we are experiencing with access to swimming. Without them, NYC will continue to be plagued with half-open pools and beaches, and drownings will continue.
Krishnan is the chair of the New York City Council Committee on Parks and Recreation. Cronin is the program director at Friends of + POOL, a nonprofit organization that is the driver of + POOL, the self-filtering, floating swimming pool set to pilot in NYC this summer. She is also an American Red Cross-certified lifeguard and lifeguard training instructor.
