New York City is a city of islands bounded by rivers, edged with beaches, and dotted with nearly a hundred public pools. Water is everywhere — inviting, refreshing, but too often deadly.
Every year, more than 4,000 Americans drown, and 400 of them are children. These tragedies fall hardest on low-income Black families: 64% of African-American children have few to no swimming skills, and Black teens drown at rates far higher than their white peers. For a city like ours, this is a profound public health failure and an injustice.
Last summer, seven people died of drowning in New York City, four of them teens, and the most drownings at city beaches since 2019. No mother or father should ever have to endure the agony of losing a child to the water. I feel this as an educator, but also as a mother of three.
My children are now in or through college, but I remember vividly their summers at the pool, learning to swim stroke by stroke. That skill gave them independence and freedom — and it gave me peace of mind. Every parent deserves that reassurance.
But currently, far too many families don’t have it. Drowning is one of the leading causes of childhood death. For children ages 1 to 4, it is the number one cause; for those 5 to 14, it is second only to car crashes. And yet, despite living in a city built on islands and bordered by rivers and beaches, most New York City children either don’t know how to swim or have weak swimming skills that leave them vulnerable to dangerous currents.
The city’s “Swim for Life” initiative, which offers free lessons to about 18,000 second graders, is a great step forward. But it reaches only a quarter of the 70,000 children in that grade. What about the 52,000 other second graders? What would it take to guarantee that every single New York City student learns to swim?
It is an enormous challenge, but we at Success Academy have resolved to tackle what we can of it. Starting this month, every one of our 2,100 fifth graders will have access to free swimming lessons. In partnership with SplashFit and the YMCA, we are offering students eight weeks of lessons at 13 pools across the city. By the time they leave fifth grade, every child in our schools will have had the opportunity to learn how to swim — and the ability to save their own life.
Of course, this is not just about safety. Swimming is a joy. It is the delight of jumping into cool water on a hot day, the challenge of mastering strokes, the camaraderie of racing and splashing around with friends. All children deserve the opportunity to experience that joy, but not all families can afford lessons.
Beyond joy, swimming is one of the most complete forms of exercise a child can engage in. It builds strength and endurance, improves cardiovascular health, and gives children a skill they can use for a lifetime of fitness.
In a city where 40% of young people are overweight or obese, putting kids in the pool is not just fun — it’s a public health necessity. But the benefits go well beyond the physical. Learning to swim builds confidence and resilience. A child who once clung anxiously to the pool wall discovers, through steady practice, that they can push off, breathe, and move through the water on their own. That transformation — from fear to mastery — carries over into the classroom and into life.
Swimming also opens doors. Proficiency in the water can lead to summer jobs as lifeguards, scholarships in competitive swimming or water polo, and even careers in aquatics and public safety. These are opportunities that should be within reach for every child, not just those whose parents can afford private lessons. Ensuring universal access to swim education is not only about preventing tragedy; it is about unlocking potential.
The bottom line is that we as a city should feel the same responsibility to teach kids to swim as we do to teach them to read. The Department of Education should take meaningful steps starting now to make swimming lessons universal, partnering with the Parks Department, YMCAs, and private facilities to ensure access for all families.
New York is surrounded by water. Whether that water presents a danger to our children or an opportunity depends on us.
Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 59 schools enrolling 22,000 students across New York City.