NYC lifeguard training exceeds state standards despite staffing shortage at beaches, pools

New York City has some of the state’s strictest training guidelines for lifeguards working at public pools and beaches — and neighboring counties with more relaxed requirements have hired enough lifeguards for the summer while the five boroughs face a staffing shortage.

Parks department officials say state regulations require the city to train lifeguards through a local 16-week program that’s only offered in the spring. But a spokesperson for the state health department said lifeguard regulations for New York’s pools and beaches only need to meet the state’s minimum requirements.

Many municipalities in the state, like Westchester County, choose to use the widespread Red Cross or YMCA certifications instead of custom programs like the one used in New York City. In municipalities that use the larger programs, trainees have more flexibility as to when they can take safety courses.

Yet the city maintains its requirement for lifeguards to be trained through a parks department program even as it struggles to hire enough lifeguards for the second summer in a row.

While the parks department typically aims to hire around 1,400 lifeguards for the season, the city was only able to recruit and hire around 900 lifeguards last summer. So far, fewer than 500 lifeguards have been hired and certified for the beginning of beach season this year, according to parks department officials who said they hope to have 900 lifeguards by the time outdoor pools open on June 29.

The city’s policy funnels lifeguard training through a program run by supervisors represented by District Council 37 Local 508. A 2021 report by the Department of Investigation said the group has “been the subject of complaints, investigations and negative media reports for decades,” and identified issues of poor recordkeeping and retaliation by supervisors against lifeguards who filed complaints.

Chris Brewster, chair of the United States Lifesaving Association’s certification committee, said the city could ease the staffing shortage by training pool lifeguards through respected organizations like the Red Cross or YMCA, which are used by cities and counties across the country.

“The Red Cross certifies more lifeguards in the United States than anybody by a long shot,” said Brewster. “A pool is a rectangle with water in the middle, right? And so it's the same thing more or less wherever you go.”

Citing ongoing union contract negotiations, Meghan Lalor, the parks department's director of media relations, declined to comment on the training requirements.

In Westchester County, where Red Cross training is used for lifeguards, county representatives said they’ve filled all 180 of their open lifeguard positions for the summer.

A representative for the town of Hempstead on Long Island said the town follows safety certification standards in year-round trainings set by the Red Cross, Nassau County and the United States Lifeguard Association, and that Hempstead expects to fill its 600 open lifeguard spots this summer.

In the five boroughs, however, aspiring lifeguards must first apply within a specific timeframe that starts in December, and be available for the city’s specialized training in the spring – which means that potential seasonal workers like college students spending their summers in New York arrive too late to qualify.

By contrast, Westchester County recruits and trains year-round to ensure enough lifeguards, said Linda Lovallo, a spokesperson for the county's parks department.

“We do know that some college kids, the ones that aren't local, will be returning towards the end of August. So we continue to recruit even during the summer,” Lovallo said.

The city’s training program is run by lifeguard supervisors who “lead rigorous CPR and water rescue training, and administer a timed swim test applicants must pass to become a certified city lifeguard,” according to DC 37’s website. The city eased the certification standards for smaller “mini-pools” this year by no longer requiring those lifeguards to take a timed swim test.

A spokesperson for DC 37 said that the training requirements, which were in place when the city had a full slate of lifeguards before the pandemic, are not the reason why the city is now having trouble hiring and that Red Cross training would not suffice for beach lifeguards.

“The lifeguard shortage is a national issue and is completely unrelated to the safety standards that have been in place for decades at the city of New York's beaches and pools,” said Thea Setterbo of DC 37. “Reducing these standards would put people's lives at risk.”

New York City’s insistence on its own policies is an outlier, even among locales that share the same coastline like the Jersey Shore and Long Island that adopt national certification programs, Brewster said.

“It just mystifies me that this is one of the major beach lifeguard agencies in the United States…that's not following the nationally accepted standards,” Brewster said.

Lalor of the parks department did not answer specific questions about the lifeguard program recruitment structure, citing contract negotiations.

“NYC parks has been working since September 2022 to rebuild our lifeguard ranks, which have been affected by the national shortage and exacerbated by COVID. New recruitment efforts this year included raising the salary to bring first- and second-year lifeguards to over $21/hour, and adding 10 more seconds on to the qualifying exam time to open up the pool of candidates,” Lalor said in a statement.

She directed further inquiries about the city’s training to members of the NYC Lifeguard Interorganizational Task Force, a coalition formed this year to tackle the city’s lifeguard shortage. Mark Foggin, a member of the task force, declined to respond to specific questions from Gothamist, but said the group is “working with all its partners to expand opportunities for lifeguard training and to enable greater cross-certification throughout the five boroughs.”

Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, who heads the parks committee, says the city’s recruitment is clearly not sufficient.

“However they're going about this process isn't working,” he said. “And they've got to really look at much different and much more creative ways to expand that applicant pool.”