Reply to NCAP Swim School – Not a good fit for neurodivergent kids

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I pop up into this thread every couple days as the parent of an asd adhd teen, and I still can’t believe there are posters (more than one now!) who think there is any blame to be laid at the swim school because low wage workers weren’t able to pivot on the spot to adapt to a non disclosed disability in a safety-heightened environment. This is bonkers! Can parents really go through life with this kind of thinking? Special needs or otherwise?

To the poster who thinks it’s no big deal for swim instructors to be trained in this and be able to adapt on the spot….. if it’s sp easy to teach a sn kid to swim, why aren’t you doing it? Swim instruction takes a certain skill set. And obviously special needs teaching swim is another specific skill set. You think someone making $18 an hour at a local pool should have all these skill sets and continue to work in this crappy job? Again, if you think it’s so easy to train up on both these skills, there’s nothing stopping you the parent from teaching it. But obviously you think it requires a special skill since you’re not doing it yourself.

Moreover, this forum is infamous for saying that no two cases of autism look alike. If no two cases look alike, how the heck would a swim instructor who doesn’t specialize in special needs be able to immediately pivot to what your kid needs? In an unsafe setting at that?

I just can’t even with this thread.  [/quote]

You have to top this with most swim classes are 4-8 kids, some 12, so stopping to work on behavior for one child for a 30 minute class is unreasonable.  Many of us have gone through our kids not doing well in group classes.  We find adapative classes, private lessons or wait till they can better handle it or teach ourselves.  Its a safety issue and these aren't OT's or ABA therapists.  Many during the summer are teens or college kids.[/quote]

I understand where you're coming from, especially about the real challenges that low-wage workers and swim instructors face. But this conversation isn't about blaming individuals—it's about what swim schools, as public accommodations, are legally required to do under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

There’s clear legal precedent showing that swim programs must consider and, when reasonable, provide modifications for children with disabilities. The Department of Justice has already settled cases where swim schools and clubs failed to meet these obligations. In one case, a child with ADHD and an intellectual disability was excluded because instructors didn’t adjust their teaching pace. Another case involved a club that had no process at all for families to request accommodations.

You're right—teaching swimming to any child requires a skill set, and teaching kids with disabilities may require another. That’s why the responsibility is on the organization, not the individual instructor, to ensure those skill sets are supported and that there’s a process in place for responding to accommodation needs.

As for parents teaching their kids—many would love to, but swimming is a life-saving skill and often requires professional instruction for safety reasons. We seek out professionals precisely because it’s not easy to do ourselves.
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