From The Bronx to the Battery, More Funding for Free Swim Lessons

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

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.

With the additional funding, the program will expand from serving 6,000 to 9,000 public school second graders.

The initiative stemmed from legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Julie Menin, who is now the Council speaker, and Shekar Krishnan, who at the time chaired the Parks Committee.

“Swimming and water safety are life saving skills,” Krishnan, who represents parts of Queens, told The City Reporter. “We’re reading every summer about drownings at the beach, about our youth in the water who don’t know how to swim.”

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 – with the total number of students now at 6,000.

Asphalt Green partnered with other organizations to provide lessons at 15 pools across the city.

The program’s long-term goal is to provide universal swim instruction for every second grader in New York City public schools. 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. 

“We 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,” Jordan Brackett, Asphalt Green’s CEO, told The City Reporter. “You learn to read, write, do arithmetic — and also learn to swim.”

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.  

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. Some CUNY campus pools, including the Olympic-sized one at Lehman College in The Bronx — where the new funding will be announced Tuesday — were unused during parts of the school week.

Wave Makers now uses the pool for lessons. 

Brackett said offering lessons during the school day is critical because it removes transportation and cost barriers for families.

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.

Their research also found a “sweet spot” of the number of swim sessions that solidified water safety ability and skill — between 25 and 30.

“You haven’t just taught the kid a life skill that might help them save a life,” Brackett said.

“You’ve taught them a little grit and resilience as well.”

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