Families: Where Have All the Swing Sets Gone?

It was bright but cool in the backyard of the Duck Pond preschool in Oakland, Calif.--perfect climbing weather. So Chloe Fillinger pulled herself to the top of the play structure, where she reached for the fire fighter's pole, her three-year-old body poised for a fast ride to the bottom. Her hand flailed in empty space. "Cynthia!" she called to her teacher. "The pole is gone!"

Across the country, school fire fighter's poles are falling to hacksaws. Day-care-center swings are tumbling into trash bins. Parks are losing their seesaws, churches their jungle gyms, housing developments their slides. Whole playgrounds have closed, all because safety regulators have raised their standards higher than many owners can afford to reach.

Concerns about safe playgrounds are not new; the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission first published guidelines in 1981. But the rules have gradually become stricter, and in recent years, courts, insurance companies and state governments have given these rules the force of law. Now, with federal regulations passed last year requiring wheelchair access to climbing structures, some playground operators can't afford to replace what they have removed. Says City College of New York environmental psychologist Roger Hart: "I think it's gone too far."

For sure, there are play structures that are unsafe. Many built before the 1970s were little more than steel towers over bare asphalt. "A lot of the playgrounds we grew up on were really kind of instruments of torture," says Kathryn Dresslar, a legislative aide who helped bring about new California regulations. In 1999, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a quarter of a million American kids went from playgrounds to emergency rooms.

Even without the new regulations, some playground operators could see that changes were needed. "There were horrible metal pieces and concrete that could cut our children," says Judy Davidson, who successfully lobbied to have climbing equipment removed from Community Elementary School 236, where she teaches in the Bronx, N.Y. But in two years of writing grant proposals, Davidson has been unable to replace what a bulldozer demolished in a few minutes. "You know how important it is for them to have a place to climb and play," she laments.

And therein lies one of the biggest problems for many parks, schools and churches. A medium-size structure that fully complies with federal guidelines costs around $100,000. Adding to the price are new regulations, issued in October 2000 under the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring that at least half of every playground be accessible to children in wheelchairs.

Even if they had the money, many small churches and day-care centers don't have the space. The guidelines require that swings be set apart from any other structure, with a clearance both in front and back equal to twice the height of the swings, and 6 ft. of clearance on either side. That's most of the space in some private playgrounds. And since a wheelchair ramp must be 12 ft. long for every foot in height, it is practically impossible for some playgrounds to include structures more than a few feet above ground level.