Swim Tests: When Schools Stop Teaching Students to Swim, Everyone Loses

For more than a century, the ability to swim was once considered a basic life skill—something schools believed was essential for producing healthy, capable adults. Today, that expectation is quietly disappearing. Across the United States, both K–12 schools and universities have steadily removed physical education requirements, including swimming competency tests that were once common prerequisites for graduation.

The trend may seem minor on the surface, but it raises a serious question: Are we doing students a disservice by lowering the bar on physical education and life-saving skills?

At a time when obesity rates are climbing and drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental death among children, the erosion of swim education requirements deserves closer scrutiny.

A Tradition That Once Defined American Education

Swimming competency tests were once a fixture on college campuses. As early as 1905, Cornell University introduced a graduation requirement that students demonstrate the ability to swim. Princeton followed in 1911 with one of the most demanding standards in the country, requiring students to swim 220 yards.

By 1913, the New York Times observed that “there is scarcely a college which does not prescribe a course in physical education and make swimming an essential part of the course.”

The logic was straightforward. Swimming is not just a sport—it’s a survival skill.

Frank Barton, an army officer and professor who helped push Cornell’s original requirement, famously argued that a soldier who could not swim was “dead weight to his unit.” The sentiment reflected a broader belief at the time that physical competence was a fundamental part of education.

Students were expected to leave school not only intellectually prepared, but physically capable.

Over the decades, however, that philosophy began to fade.

The Slow Disappearance of Swim Requirements

By the late twentieth century, many schools had already begun phasing out swimming requirements. A 1977 survey conducted by researchers at Temple University found that 42 percent of four-year universities still required students to pass a swim test before graduating. By 1997, a follow-up study at North Carolina State University found that number had dropped to just five percent.

Today, only a handful of universities still maintain such standards.

The latest example of the shift came from Dartmouth College. Since the early 1900s, Dartmouth required students to swim 50 yards before receiving their diploma. But in 2022, faculty voted to eliminate the test, meaning that for the first time in more than a century, graduates may leave the Ivy League institution without demonstrating basic swimming ability.

Dartmouth is not alone. Williams College removed its swim requirement in 2022. Hamilton College followed in 2023. Washington and Lee eliminated theirs in 2024.

These schools cited a variety of reasons—administrative challenges, cultural concerns, and disparities in swimming ability among students. But regardless of the rationale, the outcome remains the same: a long-standing expectation of physical competency has quietly vanished.

The Racial Gap in Swimming Ability

One of the most prominent arguments behind the removal of swim tests centers on racial disparities in swimming ability.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black children between the ages of five and fourteen are more than five times as likely to drown in a swimming pool as their white counterparts. Surveys have also found that Black adults are more than five times as likely to report that they cannot swim.

These statistics have made many universities uncomfortable maintaining swim requirements.

At Williams College, administrators noted that between 2013 and 2019, 81 percent of students who failed the school’s swim test were students of color. A university committee ultimately deemed the requirement “problematic” due to its disparate impact, leading faculty to eliminate the test.

Dartmouth offered similar reasoning when it scrapped its requirement, noting that students who failed the exam were “overwhelmingly students of colour.”

But some educators argue that eliminating swim requirements addresses the symptom rather than the problem.

Cornell University took a different approach. In 2024, a faculty committee voted to maintain the school’s swim competency requirement. In its resolution, the committee acknowledged the racial disparities but argued that the requirement should remain precisely because of them.

“By providing formal swimming instruction,” the committee concluded, “Cornell is doing its small part to help right the wrongs of US history and close the racial gap in accidental drowning in this country.”

It is a compelling argument. If the goal is to close the gap in swimming ability, removing the requirement may accomplish the opposite.

The Decline of Physical Education

The erosion of swim tests is part of a much larger shift in education.

Across the United States, physical education requirements have steadily weakened over the past several decades. Many high schools now allow students to satisfy PE requirements through alternative coursework, independent study, or waivers.

In some cases, students are able to opt out of physical education entirely with a doctor’s note.

On paper, medical exemptions exist to protect students with legitimate health concerns. In practice, however, the system is frequently exploited.

Students routinely obtain exemptions for vague or difficult-to-verify conditions such as chronic fatigue, anxiety disorders, migraines, exercise-induced headaches, stress-related conditions, or minor musculoskeletal discomfort. Some simply claim lingering injuries or temporary medical issues that conveniently last the duration of the semester.

In other cases, parents lobby school administrators to waive PE requirements entirely in order to prioritize academic coursework or extracurricular activities.

Over time, these exemptions accumulate into a culture where participation in physical education becomes optional rather than expected.

And when expectations disappear, participation follows.

The Obesity Crisis

The timing of this shift could not be worse.

Obesity rates in the United States have risen dramatically over the past several decades. According to federal health data, more than 41% percent of American adults are now classified as obese, and childhood obesity continues to rise as well.

Sedentary lifestyles, increased screen time, and reduced physical activity are widely cited as contributing factors.

Schools once played a central role in counteracting these trends by ensuring that every student engaged in some form of structured physical activity. Physical education classes, team sports, and swim programs helped build lifelong habits of exercise and physical literacy.

As those programs shrink or disappear, many students lose one of their only guaranteed opportunities for physical activity.

Swimming, in particular, offers unique health benefits. It provides a full-body cardiovascular workout while placing minimal stress on joints, making it one of the most accessible forms of exercise available. It also builds endurance, muscle strength, and coordination.

Perhaps most importantly, it teaches a life-saving skill.

The Safety Argument

Drowning remains a serious public health issue in the United States. For children ages one through four, drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental death.

Even among older children and teenagers, swimming ability—or lack thereof—can mean the difference between life and death.

This is one reason why many advocates argue that schools should be expanding swim education rather than eliminating it.

Teaching children to swim does more than improve physical fitness. It reduces drowning risk, builds confidence in aquatic environments, and prepares individuals for a wide range of recreational and occupational activities.

When schools remove swim requirements without replacing them with accessible instruction, they risk widening the very disparities they claim to address.

What California Requires

At the K–12 level, physical education requirements vary by state. In California, the Department of Education mandates physical education instruction as part of the curriculum, but swimming itself is not a required component.

Districts have flexibility in determining how PE standards are met, meaning swim education is often dependent on whether a school has access to a pool and the resources to run aquatic programs.

As budgets tighten and facilities age, many districts have chosen to eliminate swimming programs altogether.

The result is that fewer students graduate with basic aquatic skills than in previous generations.

Lowering the Bar

Supporters of removing swim requirements often frame the issue as a matter of fairness or practicality. Administering swim tests can be logistically challenging, especially for schools without adequate facilities.

But critics argue that the solution should not be to lower expectations.

Education has always required students to meet certain standards—whether in reading, mathematics, or science. Few would suggest eliminating literacy requirements simply because some students struggle to read.

Instead, schools invest resources in helping students achieve the standard.

The same logic could apply to swimming.

Rather than eliminating swim tests, schools could expand swim instruction, partner with community pools, or incorporate water safety education into physical education programs.

Such efforts would not only improve health outcomes but also address the disparities in swimming ability that universities now cite as justification for removing requirements.

What We Risk Losing

The disappearance of swim requirements may seem like a small change in the broader landscape of education. But it reflects a larger shift in how schools define their role in preparing students for adulthood.

If education is meant to develop well-rounded individuals, physical competence should remain part of the equation.

Reading, writing, and scientific literacy are essential skills—but so are the abilities that allow individuals to care for their own health and safety.

Knowing how to swim is one of those skills.

When schools stop requiring it, they send a subtle message that physical capability no longer matters.

In a country already struggling with rising obesity, declining physical activity, and persistent drowning risks, that message may come at a cost.

Instead of abandoning swim education, schools should be asking a different question: How can we ensure that every student graduates not only educated—but capable of staying afloat?