The following article comes from the Aspen Institute’s State of Play Kansas City report. The report assesses the opportunities and barriers for more children to access sports and physical activity in the Kansas City region.

A child’s experience in sports is often only as good as the coach. And too few coaches are trained in key areas. For instance, less than 60% of surveyed coaches have ever taken trainings in trauma-informed practices, performance anxiety, emotional regulation and how to work with parents, according to the National Coach Survey as administered by the Aspen Institute, Ohio State, Nike and partners in 2022.

Almost all coaches said they feel strongly about their ability to coach X’s and O’s, foster a positive environment and promote good sportsmanship. Only 18% reported feeling highly confident in their ability to link athletes to mental health resources and refer athletes to support. Also, coaches were rarely positive in their perspectives of parent behaviors in sports settings. For instance, two-thirds of coaches reported that parents sometimes, often or always criticize the performance of their own child and/or the performance of game officials. Recreational coaches reported more positive parent behaviors than club and school coaches.

Kansas and Missouri could take a page from Colorado by creating state laws — and enforcement mechanisms — that attempt to reduce abusive behavior in youth sports. A new Colorado law that passed in 2024 establishes requirements for nonprofit and for-profit youth sports organizations that operate outside of schools.

Until Colorado’s new law, very few states set expectations for youth sports outside of schools. It’s a largely unregulated landscape that often operates without specific standards and minimum expectations to create a safe environment for children in sports. Starting in July 2025, youth sports organizations in Colorado must:

Require coaches to complete abuse-prevention training. The training must include prohibited conduct by coaches, appropriate one-on-one interactions between players and coaches, mandatory reporting requirements, how to recognize and appropriately respond to behaviors that violate the conduct policy, and how to respond to disclosures of sexual abuse, child abuse or reports of other behaviors. The sports organization must maintain records of completed trainings.
Require background checks for those working in the organization. The background check should disclose, at a minimum, sexual offenses and felony convictions. The law allows youth sports organizations to rely on criminal background checks when making employment decisions and to be immune from civil liability unless the organization knows the information is false.
• Develop a prohibited conduct policy for coaches, parents, spectators and athletes. This includes a process for investigations, due-process requirements, and sanctions for violations of the policy. Organizations must post the policy on their website or, if they have no website, provide the notice directly to parents.
Create an online portal for conduct-policy violations by coaches. Upon learning of a potential violation, the organization must investigate and, if a violation is found to have occurred, ban the coach and report it to the state attorney general. The attorney general must review the handling of the violation and, if it is determined that the coach received due process, post the violation online in a searchable list. The law specifies that youth sports organizations that fail to comply engage in an unfair trade practice.

Until the law is implemented, it remains to be seen how effective it will be. There could be enforcement challenges. But at the very least, having specific standards for how a state believes children should be treated in sports is impactful and can be a model for Kansas and Missouri.

Jon Solomon is Community Impact Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. Jon can be reached at jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.