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In New York City, all public school sports teams are administered by the . Individual schools apply to the league for permission to form a team. If approved, the league pays for coaches, referees for games and meets, and access to city playing fields.

鈥淭eam uniforms are purchased by schools,鈥� Jenna Lyle, Department of Education deputy press secretary, tells me. 鈥淥ther needs, such as equipment and transportation, are funded both by the [DOE] central [office] and also at the school level.鈥�

This is the official party line. But it isn鈥檛 the case at all schools, leading to gross inequity across the five boroughs.

To start with, not all schools are granted the right to field a team in all the sports that they request, even if they have enough interested players and guaranteed funding from their school. This is why, in April, David Garcia-Rosen, director of school culture and athletics at Bronx Academy of Letters, an Urban Assembly public 6-12 school, filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights charging that:

PSAL is violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by adopting a facially neutral policy that is having an adverse disparate impact on students based on race, color or national origin.

He elaborates: 鈥淭he way to create equity in sports is for every kid to have access to the PSAL through Individual Access. If your school doesn鈥檛 have a swim team, you could try out for the swim team at another school. In spring of 2023, thanks to the Individual Access Pilot Program, every single student in NYC finally had access to every single sport they offered. That鈥檚 the holy grail of equity.鈥�

Yet, according to his complaint, in fall 2023, the program was amended so that, rather than it being available to every single student, it would instead apply to:

Students who attend schools with fewer than six teams and students in targeted districts with limited access to sports.

鈥淏ut the DOE has not provided, despite numerous requests from me, what are the target districts,鈥� Garcia-Rosen asserts. 鈥淢y complaint is showing that Black and Latino students have less access to PSAL than all other students. Black and Latino students are much more likely to go to a school with more than six teams, but way less than the 25 teams than the average white student has access to. All I am asking for is to simply return to the policy of spring 2023. They literally solved the problem less than a year ago, and then re-created the problem.鈥�

But even if PSAL were to reinstate guaranteed Individual Access for all, it would not be enough to bring about true sports equity in NYC schools. 

There would still be the issue of adequate coaching. 

鈥淧SAL coaches are only paid for 10 hours a week,鈥� recounts a mother whose child has participated in PSAL for two years. 鈥淭rack meets can run for eight hours, and since coaches must go to meets, they don鈥檛 go to practice, so kids aren鈥檛 getting any training.鈥� She added that at some schools, coaches volunteer their time and even buy necessities with their own money, hoping for eventual reimbursement by the PSAL. Students who can afford it get private coaching outside of school. At others, though, the athletes practice without professional guidance.

Uniforms and transportation to games are another inequitable issue.

Amanda Vender, a mom at Thomas Edison High in Queens, says her children鈥檚 鈥渦niforms and transportation are completely provided. I have never had to pay for anything.鈥�

At the same time, members of the rugby team at Columbia Secondary School in Harlem 鈥� many of whom live in upper Manhattan 鈥� had to get themselves to and from the city championship game in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, by public transportation 鈥� a 90-minute trip each way.

At Brooklyn Technical High School, when there isn鈥檛 enough money in the budget to pay for uniforms, the Alumni and Parents associations step in. A member explains, 鈥淲e have a line in our budget dedicated to sports. Coaches often email us directly, and we almost always approve.鈥�

A parent on the PTA of a large, arts-focused high school echoes, 鈥淥ur PTA has paid for uniforms, balls and bowling alley fees for the bowling team, team hoodies for the table tennis team and various gear for the girls fencing team.鈥�

Schools without robust PTAs and alumni associations, however, are forced to turn to families to cover a variety of shortfalls, or forfeit competing altogether. With over 70% of NYC public school students classified as , it鈥檚 obvious that a majority of schools and families do not have the means to pay for the coaching, uniforms, equipment and transportation that PSAL doesn鈥檛 cover 鈥� even if their school is granted permission to start a team.

鈥淚f you want to compete at the college level, you need to go to meets where college coaches can evaluate you,鈥� another parent explains. 鈥淏ut these big meets are only attended by big schools, or else the parents have to fund it. Schools without big teams can鈥檛 afford to go, so their athletes don鈥檛 get the chance to shine. Tons of schools don鈥檛 get to big meets, and their students are the ones who need those college and scholarship opportunities most.鈥�

鈥淪ports is an academic issue,鈥� Garcia-Rosen says. 鈥淜ids who participate in sports have higher graduation rates; they鈥檙e less likely to be arrested at 5 o鈥檆lock, because they鈥檙e on sports fields; they鈥檙e less likely to get pregnant; they鈥檙e less likely to use drugs. All the things we鈥檙e trying to avoid with our students, . All schools should have sports.鈥�

Asked to comment regarding the pending civil right complaint, Deputy Press Secretary David Clarke replied, 鈥淭here has been no scaling back of our commitment to providing equitable access to PSAL sports. We have aggressively expanded the number of new teams by 222 over the past 3 years (146 this year alone), created over 20 shared access programs between schools at different locations, and offered individuals access to try out for teams at other schools, including about 1,500 this year alone.

“The [current] legal stipulation requires we prioritize districts and schools with fewer teams and focuses on adding teams and creating shared access programs, with individual access intended only for students at schools with very limited access to team sports. We ensure students in those districts have the legally required priority access, and then consider other requests, and we found that broadening access beyond what was legally stipulated moved us further away from the goals of the stipulation to increase access on a schoolwide basis. Our very first priority is following the stipulation to ensure that students have equitable access to athletics at or close to their home.鈥� 

Garcis-Rosen disagrees. 鈥淭hey literally renamed the program ‘access’ from ‘all access’ this fall. In the spring of 2023, every student in NYC had ‘guaranteed individual access.’ Under the new PSAL policy, only 8% of Black and Latino students have ‘guaranteed individual access.’ The new policy took guaranteed individual access away from 183,680 Black and Latino students. While adding 222 teams over the past three years is great, there have also been over 100 teams dropped from the PSAL this year alone.鈥�

Launching new teams does nothing to help students enrolled in schools that are too small to field teams of their own, yet too big 鈥� or located in the wrong neighborhood 鈥� for their athletes to qualify to play at other schools. As the rules stand now, those kids are still blocked from participating.

Creating new teams doesn鈥檛 lead to equity if they are not available to all. The only thing that will is making it possible for every student to have access to every team sport, and ensuring that all those teams, whether or not they鈥檙e able to obtain outside contributions, are equally funded.

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