New Providence Community Pool 1378 Springfield Avenue, New Providence, NJ 07974

"Fantastic basketball court is always down to challenge anyone to a 3pt contest there"

"The best pool among nearby few town community pools in terms of facilities. Hours are great as well."

"Beautiful newly done track field now open to the public. A wonderful early morning walk today! Can't wait to go back. Track open to public on weekends, unless there is an event. More hours, too, but I don't know complete schedule. Today, some folks were playing Extreme Frisbee on the field. Nice to see so many enjoying this perfect day!"

"Huge community pool, with multiple areas for different skill and age levels, including a dive tank. Usually very crowded in the summer, with very limited shaded areas around the perimeter of the pools. Competitive swim and dive teams. Strict no alcohol policy. Food shack on site. Recently added basketball courts, and plenty of parking."

"This facility imposes rules that are against the spirit of equity and inclusiveness for kids with special needs. My son who has autism loves swimming and playing with the diving board. He spent the entire summer enjoying the diving board in Trycan Camp in Summit Community Pool without any problem, physically and behaviorally. After the camp was over, we paid for a membership with NP Community Pool which also has a similar diving board and is closer to our house. However, in NP Community Pool, the Staffs asked him to do a test that require thorough understanding of complex verbal instruction, which is beyond the capability of non-verbal kids. What is worse, there is only one time slot every day and one chance for kids to take and pass the test. My son did his best to follow the testing requirement via my gestural instruction, but still he was not able to complete the test in the exact required manner due to his native disability in verbal communication. When I communicated to the Staffs about my son's situation and requested a more tailored type of test for kids of similar condition, the response I got was lazy and cold, something like "...This is for your kid's safty......", "......you can raise your opinion about how tailored the test should be to the board......." and "......every kid no matter what needs to follow the same test......", even though my son demonstrated in front of the Staffs that he can dive comfortably and safely without any issue. What test can do a better job of assessing the diving ability than simply demonstrating he can do? To me, this is blunt discrimination against kids with special needs. We can't use words to describe how horrible we felt for my son after he was disallowed from playing the diving board. He was really thrilled when he entered facility but had to leave with tremendous amount of frustration and disappointment. We wish the Staffs and the relevant committees in NP Community Pool could be more considerate about the specific situation surrounding each kid with special needs and try to provide more constructive solution as opposed to systemically prohibit them from utilizing community facilities."