Stressed-out NYC parents blast lack of swim lessons, water access as lifeguard shortage persists

A severe lifeguard shortage at the unofficial start of summer is hanging families out to dry as public beaches reopen Saturday.

The city has just roughly a third of the lifeguards it needs, Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue told the New York City Council earlier this week — a shortfall posed to trim back hours, capacity and programming at local beaches and pools.

That’s left parents and their children scrambling for activities and basic lessons in water safety across the five boroughs, as other free programs diversions while schools are out for the summer are facing cutbacks too.

“If the libraries aren’t staffed and have limited hours, the parks department doesn’t have sufficient staff and it may not be as safe at the playgrounds, then the pools — these are all the places kids go,” said Heather Dailey, parent of a child in fifth grade with autism.

“So I’m like, where are the kids supposed to go?”

Public pools are slated to reopen after the last day of school on June 29 with limited hours. Donoghue said she expects the parks department will be able to offer one lifeguard shift, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., if the city can reach last year’s staffing levels.

But kids swimming lessons are again taking a hit. They will return, though in a sharply limited capacity this summer — at one pool in each borough, Donoghue announced in recent weeks. One thousand slots in the program, known as Learn to Swim, will open next month; parents can apply through a lottery.

The insufficient number of lifeguards — a shortage that has persisted for two years after a pandemic-era pause — comes in spite of attempts and assurances from the city to tackle the crisis.

The parks department spearheaded a months-long recruiting drive since September and competitive pay increases for first and second-year lifeguards to more than $21 per hour, plus a $1,000 bonus for employees who stay all season.

But the city had only brought on 500 lifeguards as of the Council hearing on Monday, including 200 new recruits who are in lifeguard training, on top of 280 staffers returning this summer. The department employed fewer than 900 lifeguards last summer, compared to the 1,400 positions the commissioner said she needs to fully operate pools and beaches.

“We are in the throes of a national lifeguard shortage,” Donoghue said. “That continues all over the country.”

The pools offering lessons are Hamilton Fish in Manhattan, Red Hook in Brooklyn, the Liberty and Fisher pools in Queens, Lyons on Staten Island, and Crotona in the Bronx.

Rima Izquierdo, a swim instructor at a private pool and parent of four school-aged children, including some with disabilities, said a shortage of swimming options is par for the course for where she lives in the Bronx, as residents can wait years for public pool repairs.

“The Bronx is fine because we were already used to scarcity,” Izquierdo said. “We’re still getting nothing.”

But Izquierdo said one of her sons, who has autism and is hesitant to engage in many activities, has developed a passion for swimming that is hard to replicate in other settings.

“Swimming is everything for us,” she said. “The whole family was able to work out, which is difficult to find that kind of experience — and for it to be available to my typical child, my atypical children; us adults, and my youngest and older child is a 10-year [age] difference.”

For Claudia Langsam, 17, who lives in Brooklyn, lifeguards at a private camp on Staten Island because her vision without glasses or contacts disqualifies her from working for the city. She told the Daily News she would have considered a pool closer to home, like the one in Sunset Park that she grew up visiting over the summers, if the opportunity was available.

“It was a fun experience for me as a kid, and I’d like to make it so for other people too,” she said of the gig. “It’s not exactly the easiest job or a laid back job, but it’s definitely worth it.”

The shortfalls come as the parks department budget could decrease spending by $36.9 million in Mayor Eric Adams’ executive budget. Under the proposal, the agency budget would represent 0.6 percent of the overall city budget — far below what Adams has signaled is his vision for parks and recreation.

“This is still nowhere near the 1% of the budget that Mayor Adams campaigned on and explicitly promised,” said Councilman Shekar Krishnan, D-Queens, at the hearing.

Dailey, the parent of a child with autism, enrolled her son in swimming lessons before the pandemic and said she has checked back every summer to see if she can get the free instruction again — adding that kids with disabilities are at higher risk for drowning than all swimmers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4.

“We probably will only get to go on weekends now though because if the hours are cut back in the evenings, we won’t be able to go,” Dailey said.

“Out of all the summer things he can do in the city, the pool is his favorite.”