Travel Tips for Parents & Guardians:
What to Know If You’re Planning to Chaperone
As fall sports wind down and regional, state, and national tournaments ramp up, parents and guardians might find themselves chaperoning a team trip. While traveling to an away meet, game, or event is exciting and fun for everyone—from parents to coaches to athletes—it’s important for chaperones to understand the risks involved in sports travel, particularly when it comes to misconduct and abuse.
While your child or teen is gathering sports equipment, packing their bags, and attending their final practice or training session before competing on the next highest stage, parents and guardians should also be preparing for their role as a chaperone.
If you’re volunteering to be a chaperone this season, read on for safeguarding tips to make sure you’re ready to help protect youth athletes on their upcoming team trip.
Tip #1: Travel Prep
Before the trip, take a moment to review the team’s travel policies. The team or league’s program administrator should be able to share these policies with all parents, athletes, coaches, staff members, and volunteers.
Get consent forms and parent/guardian contact information for each athlete. This includes the required consent for transportation and lodging, and the parent/guardian contact information for each athlete in case of an emergency.
Take SafeSport training so you know how to recognize and report abuse. The SafeSport® for Volunteers course will help you better support athletes as a chaperone. If you are an Adult Participant in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement who has authority over or regular contact with minor athletes in the Movement, you are required to take the SafeSport® Trained Core course. Explore these courses and more on our courses page.
Tip #2: Transportation & Safety
Review the carpool or transportation arrangements. Some teams have relatively few traveling athletes. If this is the case, make sure that at least one adult chaperone is present in addition to the coach so that no youth athlete is traveling alone with an adult. For teams with a large number of traveling athletes, it’s best practice to assign one chaperone for every 5-8 athletes.
Make sure no child is riding alone with an adult. One-on-one interactions between an adult and a youth athlete can be an opportunity for misconduct or abuse to occur. As a chaperone, you can help keep this from happening by always making sure two adults are present during transportation. Or, if a single adult is traveling with athletes, make sure there are multiple athletes present who are over the age of eight.
Tip #3: Hotels & Lodging
Find out if everyone will have their own bed. Your program administrator should brief chaperones on sleeping arrangements before the trip. When possible, it’s best practice for all athletes to have their own bed. Ask questions to understand if athletes will be sharing a room, and where athlete rooms will be located within the hotel in proximity to other athletes, the team’s coaches, and the parent/guardian chaperones. Unless an exception exists, adults and minor athletes should never share a room or a bed.
Conduct bed checks in pairs. Always check on athletes in their hotel rooms with another adult. To increase athlete safety, establish a curfew and make sure every athlete is accounted for at a given time.
Make sure interactions happen in common areas, not hotel rooms. Always interact with athletes in common spaces, like the hotel lobby or a meeting room. Encourage athletes to also use these spaces when gathering or hanging out as the more open and public an interaction is the safer it is.
Tip #4: Debrief—What Went Well?
Throughout the trip, have regular check-ins with athletes and adults. Talk with the athletes, chaperones, and coaches to make sure everyone feels safe and supported.
Identify any problems and what could be better next time. After you return from travel, have conversations with athletes, coaches, and parents. Ask for feedback on whether athletes felt safe and respected and be open to talking about interactions that could have been made safer.
Report anything that may have violated a prevention policy. If you learn of any conduct that may have gone against policies in place to protect athletes, report it to your league, club, or program administrator. If your report involves someone in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement, report to the U.S. Center for SafeSport as well.
Learn More
Learn more about how you can prevent abuse as a parent chaperone. Explore our Travel Tips or check out our abuse prevention resources.