Settlement to give Black and Latino students more access to NYC high school sports teams
New York City will expand access to sports teams in the wake of a lawsuit that claimed Black and Latino students were systematically denied access to the same athletic opportunities as students of other races.
Under a preliminary settlement agreement announced Wednesday, the education department will group certain nearby high schools so they can share access to Public School Athletic League (PSAL) sports teams. In addition, the city will create 200 new sports teams by spring 2024.
The agreement is a significant victory for students and advocates who have argued that unequal access to sports teams can have significant effects on students’ physical and mental health and their ability to earn college scholarships for athletes.
“It’s a complete restructuring of how small, highly-segregated schools get access to PSAL sports,” said Caroline Soussloff, an attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, one of the legal organizations involved in bringing the class action lawsuit. “This is pretty monumental.”
The lawsuit was filed in state court in 2018 by student athletes who were denied access to sports teams as well as IntegrateNYC, a youth-led group that pushes for desegregation and equal resources in city schools. The suit argued the athletic team disparities violated the city’s human rights law.
The lack of sports teams at many high schools can be traced in part to a Bloomberg administration-era policy that closed many large high schools that were considered low-performing and replaced them with smaller schools that could offer a more personalized experience. That policy has created academic benefits, research has shown, but those small schools often don’t enroll enough students to field a wide array of extracurricular activities including sports.
The limited offerings at smaller high schools, especially those that predominantly serve students of color, have led to stark inequities, Soussloff said. Black and Latino students attend schools with about 10 fewer teams on average compared to students of other races, according to the lawsuit.