Live events that admit children—whether children are the primary audience, a significant component of a mixed audience, or simply an incidental presence because a general-audience event does not exclude them—carry planning obligations that go beyond those applicable to adult-only events. Children’s physical vulnerability, their dependence on adult supervision, their limited capacity to navigate emergency situations independently, and the legal and ethical obligations that attach to their care in public settings all require that event organizers address their presence explicitly and systematically in the planning process. The most common error in this domain is not malice but oversight: treating children’s presence as a minor variation on adult event planning rather than as a category of planning consideration that touches nearly every operational domain.

This article addresses the planning framework for events at which children will be present, from the initial questions that define the scope of children’s needs through the venue design accommodations, emergency planning requirements, and coordination with authorities that responsible children’s event planning demands.

Defining the Scope: Planning Questions for Children’s Presence

The planning process for children’s presence at an event begins with a set of questions whose answers determine the scope and character of all subsequent planning decisions. These questions are not merely administrative; each answer has operational implications that propagate through the event’s staffing, site design, communications, emergency planning, and vendor management.

The most fundamental question is whether the event is designed primarily for children or whether children are an anticipated component of a general audience. An event where children are the primary demographic—a children’s festival, a school field trip event, or a family-oriented entertainment event—requires a fundamentally different planning approach than an event where children may attend with adult companions as a secondary audience characteristic. The answer to this question defines the scale of the dedicated children’s infrastructure required, the ratio of child-specific staff and services to general event services, and the character of the site design decisions that follow (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

The age distribution of the anticipated child population is a second critical planning variable. Events that serve a broad age range—from infants and toddlers through adolescents up to 17 years of age—require infrastructure and activities calibrated to multiple age groups simultaneously, which creates both planning complexity and the potential for age-group conflict when mixed populations share activity spaces. Events with a more concentrated age range can calibrate their infrastructure and activities more precisely. The practical implications of age distribution span infrastructure (changing tables for infants, stroller parking, age-appropriate play equipment), staffing ratios (adult-to-child ratios vary with age in most child care regulatory frameworks), activities design (age-appropriate activities and materials), and safety measures (choking hazards, equipment height restrictions, and swimming safety ratios all vary with age) (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Transportation and arrival patterns for children require specific planning attention. Events where children arrive in organized groups—school field trips, camp groups, youth organization outings—benefit from a dedicated drop-off location near the venue entry that separates child group arrival from general vehicle traffic. Walking a group of children from a general parking area across active vehicle traffic lanes significantly increases injury risk during arrival and departure. Dedicated drop-off zones, clearly designated and managed by event staff, eliminate this exposure. Events where children arrive with individual families have different arrival management needs but still benefit from site design that minimizes the pedestrian-vehicle conflict inherent in parking lot environments.

Child labor considerations apply when children will serve as performers, volunteers, or workers at the event. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum age requirements, hour restrictions, and prohibited occupations for minor workers, with state law sometimes imposing stricter requirements. Events that use children in any paid or volunteer capacity must verify compliance with applicable child labor law, obtain required parental or guardian consent documentation, and manage the children’s working conditions in accordance with their legal obligations.

General Safety Considerations for Children at Events

The presence of children at an event should be explicitly acknowledged in the event’s risk assessment and emergency action plan, even when children are not the primary audience and the event organizer has not made specific provisions for children’s programming. Children who accompany adults to general audience events are still present, and their specific vulnerabilities must be planned for. A crowd emergency that is manageable for adult audience members may be significantly more dangerous for children, who are shorter, lighter, and less physically capable of resisting crowd pressure or self-evacuating (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Venue infrastructure must be reviewed for child-specific hazards. Handrail spacing and baluster openings in railings, steps, and elevated platforms must prevent a sphere 4 inches (102 mm) in diameter from passing through—the approximate head circumference of an infant—in accordance with applicable building codes and OSHA requirements (OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1052). Flooring surfaces that are slippery when wet present significantly greater hazard to children than to adults due to their lower center of gravity and less developed balance. Open water features, including decorative pools, fountains, drainage basins, and any standing water, present drowning hazards to small children and must be fenced or otherwise made inaccessible. The Americans with Disabilities Act applies equally to children, and the event’s ADA compliance planning must account for the needs of children with disabilities as well as adults (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Event promotional materials should clearly indicate whether the event is appropriate for children and what age groups are expected or permitted. Failing to communicate clearly whether children are welcome, what age-specific restrictions apply, and what facilities are available for families creates confusion at entry, disappointed expectations, and potentially the arrival of families at events for which no appropriate infrastructure has been planned. Where children under a certain age are not admitted, this must be clearly communicated before ticket purchase.

The Children’s Issues Coordinator

The Event Safety Alliance recommends that events involving children hire or designate a Children’s Issues Coordinator (CIC): a qualified and experienced person whose specific responsibility includes knowing what to do and providing direction when an incident involving a child occurs (Event Safety Alliance, 2013). This role recognizes that children-related incidents—lost children, child welfare concerns, child injury, or child protection situations—require specialized knowledge and a designated decision-maker who can act quickly without needing to escalate through the general event command structure.

The CIC’s scope includes developing policies and plans for the care of separated children who cannot be quickly reunited with their parent or guardian, establishing the law enforcement and child social services notification procedures, identifying and arranging a supervised child-friendly holding area on site, coordinating medical care and nutrition for children in temporary care, and arranging an off-site alternative location to which children can be evacuated in the event of an emergency requiring venue evacuation. The CIC should be introduced to all relevant event staff during the pre-event briefing and should have direct radio communication with the event command center.

Events with significant youth attendance that lacks adult accompaniment—events targeted at teenagers who attend without parents—benefit from a designated help or solutions booth where young attendees who have become separated from friends, missed transportation, or lost personal items can access assistance and communication tools. A dedicated meeting point where parents can wait at the event’s end to collect their teenage children, with a message-leaving capability, reduces the confusion and potential distress that commonly occurs at the conclusion of youth-attended events (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Emergency Planning for Children

Emergency planning for events with children must address the specific ways in which children’s needs and behaviors differ from adults in emergency situations. Children are more likely to become separated from their adult companions during an emergency, particularly if the emergency involves a crowd movement or evacuation. The preservation of family unity—keeping children with their parents or guardians during emergency evacuations rather than channeling them through separate paths—is both a child safety strategy and an emotional stability consideration; family separation under emergency conditions significantly compounds the psychological impact on children (FEMA, 2010).

Event staff must be trained in the procedures and considerations for evacuating and assisting children in emergency situations, including awareness of the physical limitations of children in evacuation scenarios, the communication adjustments needed when addressing children versus adults, and the procedures for reuniting families that become separated during an evacuation. Evacuation plans should be reviewed with children’s specific needs in mind: route widths, surface conditions, lighting levels, and assembly area configurations that are adequate for adults may present additional challenges when children are included in the evacuating population.

FEMA provides two free online independent study courses applicable to children and emergencies: IS-366, Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters, and IS-36, Multi-hazard Planning for Child Care (FEMA, 2021). Both are relevant to event organizers responsible for children’s safety and are available at no cost through the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. The local government’s Hazard Vulnerability Assessment and regional Emergency Operations Plan may also contain relevant guidance on children’s needs in emergency situations.

The venue’s potential role as a rally point, temporary housing location, or emergency command center during a declared emergency should be considered in the context of the event’s planned children’s presence. If the venue may be called upon to serve these emergency functions during or following an event, the children’s presence and the staffing and infrastructure needed to maintain their care must be factored into the contingency planning (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Coordination with Authorities

Events that include children’s programming, play areas, or any activity involving children in the organizer’s care should coordinate with the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), local child protective services (CPS), and law enforcement during the planning process. These agencies can provide jurisdiction-specific requirements for children’s care, adult-to-child staffing ratios, background check requirements for staff working with children, and guidance on policies and procedures that have been developed and tested in the local context. Assumptions about child care requirements based on practices from other jurisdictions may not be valid locally, and early engagement with the relevant agencies avoids the discovery of non-compliance after commitments have been made.

The event’s insurance provider is a valuable resource for children’s safety planning, particularly for events that include children’s activity areas, rides, or programming with inherent risk. Insurance professionals with experience in event liability have access to risk management expertise and industry data on children’s injury patterns that can inform planning decisions. The insurance carrier should be fully informed of all intended children’s activities, and any significant changes to the children’s programming scope should be communicated to the carrier before implementation (Event Safety Alliance, 2013).

Conclusion

Planning for children at live events is a planning discipline with its own body of knowledge, its own regulatory framework, and its own risk profile. Events that acknowledge children’s presence as a distinct planning category—rather than an incidental variation on adult event planning—are better positioned to provide a genuinely safe experience for the youngest members of their audience and to manage the legal, operational, and ethical obligations that children’s presence creates. The Children’s Issues Coordinator, the emergency plan provisions specific to children, the coordination with AHJ and CPS, and the venue design review for child-specific hazards are not optional additions to an event plan; they are necessary components of responsible event management whenever children will be present.

References

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, 104 Stat. 328 (1990).

Event Safety Alliance. (2013). The event safety guide (version 1.1). ESA. https://eventsafetyalliance.org

Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2010). Planning for the needs of children in disasters (IS-366). FEMA. https://training.fema.gov/is

Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2021). Multi-hazard planning for child care (IS-36). FEMA. https://training.fema.gov/is

Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). Stairways. 29 CFR 1926.1052. OSHA.