Students at William T. Rogers Middle School in Kings Park are spending recess on blacktop instead of grass this week, after multiple students reported tick bites in late September that pushed the district to cancel outdoor sports practices on grass fields and pull all recess off turf entirely as of Monday.
Superintendent Dr. Timothy Eagen confirmed the shift, telling News 12 Long Island that the school's pest-control vendor is using an organic treatment solution on the fields. Eagen said the uptick in ticks may be tied to the recent nor'easter, the school's proximity to nearby wooded areas, or the local deer population, according to CBS News. The middle school's turf fields sit directly against the woods bordering Nissequogue River State Park, a more than 500-acre expanse of protected forest and former psychiatric center grounds along the Nissequogue River that Hoodline previously reported forms a contiguous wildlife habitat with the school property.
Why Crews Can't Just Spray the Fields
The district's hands are partly tied by state law. New York's Child Safe Playing Fields Act, enacted in 2010, strictly prohibits chemical pesticides on public and private school athletic fields and playing grounds unless county health officials or the local school board grant an emergency determination, according to the New York State Department of Health. That leaves districts like Kings Park reliant on EPA-exempt, non-synthetic products to manage pest populations on school turf.
Those organic options come with real limitations. Guidance from the Cornell University Turfgrass Program notes that the allowable treatments act primarily as contact top-treatments that break down quickly, meaning they typically require multiple applications to match the effectiveness of the prohibited synthetic chemicals. That helps explain why an initial treatment may not have been enough to clear the grounds — the district reported finding ticks on the grass fields even after mowing and treatment, per CBS News.
In the meantime, students will use alternative locations while the additional treatment efforts continue, the district said. Tick-borne illnesses remain a concern as summer turns to fall, and local officials interviewed by CBS News underscored that families shouldn't let their guard down. Julia Alamo said people should not take risks, since ticks carry diseases, while Andrew Handel said Long Island is experiencing consistently bad tick seasons year after year.
A Regional Problem Moving Into Neighborhoods
Suffolk County officials have been watching this trend closely. In an August public health briefing, county officials reported that Lone Star ticks are expanding westward across Suffolk, warning that ticks stay active year-round whenever temperatures climb above 40 degrees, according to Patch. Tom Jones noted that ticks are no longer confined to wooded areas, and CBS News reported that deer, mice and rabbits are carrying them into populated neighborhoods — a dynamic children face heightened exposure to since they spend more time outdoors in places where ticks live.
The stakes are significant for Suffolk County, which has the highest absolute volume of tick-borne disease cases in New York State among its 1.8 million residents, with annual Lyme disease infections topping 3,000, per Advanced Exterminating. Some municipalities have responded by targeting the animals that spread ticks in the first place — Shelter Island and Smithtown both expanded Nuisance Wildlife Control Officer programs earlier this year to increase deer culling, according to the Shelter Island Reporter.
Emerging Health Threats Add Urgency
Beyond Lyme disease, newer threats have put Suffolk County in the spotlight. In May, state health authorities confirmed New York's first human case of Bourbon virus — a rare, potentially lethal illness spread by Lone Star ticks — after a 67-year-old Suffolk County resident recovered from hospitalization, as Hoodline reported at the time. Bourbon virus has no approved vaccine or targeted antiviral treatment, making prevention the only real defense.
That same month, the New York State Assembly unanimously passed legislation requiring the Department of Health to add Alpha-gal syndrome — a red-meat allergy caused by Lone Star tick bites — to the state's list of reportable communicable diseases. CDC estimates cited in the bill's background suggest between 3,800 and 18,000 Suffolk County residents may already have the condition, the highest concentration anywhere in the country.
For families navigating the new recess restrictions, Dr. Sharon Nachman, division chief of pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Children's Hospital, warned that Long Island tick activity persists well into autumn and urged parents to check children daily for attached ticks, per News 12 Long Island. Prompt removal within 24 to 36 hours significantly lowers the risk of disease transmission, underscoring why the Kings Park district is keeping kids off the grass until its organic treatments can fully take hold.
