A Pennsylvania soccer club director collects all three Act 153 clearances from every coach, files them carefully, and heads into fall season feeling covered. Then a coach gets blocked from the roster in GotSport, or a parent asks why an assistant coach hasn't completed SafeSport training, and the uncomfortable truth surfaces:
Here's the answer up front for anyone searching for it: Pennsylvania youth soccer clubs must satisfy both the Commonwealth's Child Protective Services Law (Act 153, as amended by Act 15 of 2015) and the requirements their US Youth Soccer state association enforces on behalf of US Soccer. The two systems overlap but do not substitute for each other. A coach can hold three valid state clearances and still be ineligible for a roster, and a coach can be fully cleared in GotSport while a state clearance quietly expires.
This guide maps exactly which requirement satisfies which mandate, where the gaps are, and how to run both layers without a spreadsheet meltdown.
Layer 1: What Pennsylvania law requires (Act 153)
Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law requires background clearances for adults who have direct contact with children, including volunteer and paid coaches, team managers, and club staff. There are three:
- Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record Check, submitted through the PATCH portal. Free for volunteers; a modest fee applies for paid roles.
- Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance, issued by the Department of Human Services through the Child Welfare (CWIS) portal. Also free for volunteers.
- FBI fingerprint-based federal criminal history check, completed through the state's authorized fingerprinting vendor. One important carve-out: unpaid volunteers who have been continuous Pennsylvania residents for the past 10 years may sign a disclosure statement affidavit instead of completing the FBI check. Paid coaches never qualify for this exemption.
Clearances are valid for 60 months (five years) under state law. Two wrinkles catch clubs off guard. First, the volunteer and employment tracks are separate: a clearance obtained for volunteer purposes cannot be used when the same person moves into a paid coaching role. Second, the renewal clock runs from each clearance's issue date, so one coach can hold three documents with three different expiration dates.
If your club runs on a short pre-season window, the sequencing matters as much as the requirements. We published a week-by-week clearance timeline in our Pennsylvania Act 153 10-week compliance guide, and the same math applies to soccer.
Layer 2: What US Soccer and your state association require
Pennsylvania is one of the few states with two US Youth Soccer state associations: Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer (roughly the eastern half of the state, administered through GotSport) and PA West Soccer (the western half, with its own risk management system). Whichever one your club belongs to, it enforces a risk management program layered on top of state law, and a coach who hasn't completed it cannot be placed on a roster.
The soccer-side requirements generally include:
- SafeSport abuse-prevention training, required annually for coaches, assistant coaches, team managers, board members, and trainers under US Soccer Policy 212-3. Year one is the full course; subsequent years use refresher modules.
- Concussion awareness training (CDC Heads Up), an annual requirement under Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer's risk management policy for coaches, assistants, and team managers.
- The association's risk management application and agreement, completed in the association's system, with the state clearances uploaded for club and association review.
- Roster gating. Compliance isn't advisory. In Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer, travel, recreational, and intramural coaches, managers, club staff, and board members must be fully compliant in GotSport or they cannot appear on a roster or serve the club.
The gap matrix: which requirement satisfies which mandate
This is the table to keep. Down the left are the individual requirements a PA soccer coach might complete. Across the top are the two authorities that can each independently sideline that coach.
| Requirement | Satisfies PA Act 153? | Satisfies US Soccer / state association? | Renewal cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| PA State Police check (PATCH) | Yes (1 of 3) | Only once uploaded and approved in the association's risk management system | Every 60 months |
| PA Child Abuse History Clearance | Yes (2 of 3) | Only once uploaded and approved in the association's risk management system | Every 60 months |
| FBI fingerprint check (or 10-year resident volunteer affidavit) | Yes (3 of 3) | Only once uploaded and approved in the association's risk management system | Every 60 months (affidavit practices vary by club and association) |
| SafeSport training | No. Training is not a clearance | Yes, required annually | Annual |
| Concussion training (CDC Heads Up) | No | Yes, required annually | Annual |
| Association risk management agreement | No | Yes, required for roster approval | Per association cycle |
Read the gaps in both directions. Nothing on the soccer side (SafeSport, concussion training, the risk management agreement) counts toward the three state clearances. And holding the three state clearances does nothing for roster eligibility until they're submitted, reviewed, and approved inside the association's system alongside the annual trainings. Two authorities, two ledgers, one coach.
The cadence mismatch is where clubs actually fail
Most Pennsylvania soccer clubs don't fail because they didn't know a requirement existed. They fail on timing, because the two layers renew on different clocks:
- State clearances renew every five years, staggered by each document's issue date.
- SafeSport and concussion training renew every year, often pegged to the seasonal year rather than the completion date.
- Rosters reset every season, which means the association's compliance check happens at least annually even for requirements that last five years.
Picture a volunteer coach cleared in fall 2021. Her clearances are valid into 2026, so the club stops thinking about her. But her SafeSport refresher lapsed last July, so GotSport blocks her roster spot in week one. Meanwhile her co-coach completed SafeSport in June, feels current, and doesn't realize his child abuse clearance from 2021 expires mid-season. Both coaches "did their compliance." Both are exposure points, for different reasons, on different calendars.
Multiply that by 40 coaches across fall and spring seasons, add the volunteer-versus-paid distinction (a coach who starts getting a stipend needs employment-designated clearances and loses the FBI affidavit option), and the tracking problem outgrows any spreadsheet. If you're weighing what screening each role actually needs, our guide to background check types for youth sports breaks down the underlying check categories.
How to run both layers without the scramble
1. Build one roster of humans, not two lists of documents. The unit of compliance is the coach, not the clearance. Every adult with direct contact should have a single record showing all six items from the matrix with their individual expiration dates.
2. Sequence by turnaround, not by convenience. The FBI fingerprint check requires an in-person appointment and takes the longest; PATCH is often near-instant for clean results; the child abuse clearance sits in between. Start the slowest item first, and start before registration closes, not after.
3. Treat annual trainings as season-opening requirements. Tie SafeSport and concussion training to a fixed pre-season deadline so every coach renews before rosters build, instead of chasing lapses in week three.
4. Track the volunteer/paid boundary explicitly. Flag any coach whose status changes. A stipend that starts in the spring quietly invalidates volunteer-designated clearances for that role.
5. Put renewal reminders on autopilot. A five-year expiration is precisely the kind of deadline no human remembers. Automated reminders ahead of each expiration are the difference between a renewal and a roster block.
Where Ankored fits
Ankored doesn't replace PATCH, the CWIS portal, or the fingerprinting vendor, and it doesn't replace your state association's risk management system. It's the tracking and automation layer that keeps both ledgers in one view. Clubs assign requirements by role and group (head coaches, assistants, team managers, board members each get their own checklist), coaches upload their state clearance certificates into custom file requirements that flow through an admin review queue, and integrated abuse-prevention and concussion training can be assigned and tracked alongside them. Automated reminders go out at 30, 15, 7, and 3 days before any requirement expires, on each item's own clock, and every document lives in secure digital storage so a five-year-old clearance is one search away when the association or an auditor asks. Clubs that want stricter control can enforce a completion order, so a background clearance gates everything that follows.
One dashboard answers the only question that matters on roster day: is every coach cleared on both layers, right now?
See how Ankored tracks Act 153 clearances and soccer-side requirements in one place. Book a demo.
Frequently asked questions
Do Act 153 clearances satisfy US Soccer's requirements for Pennsylvania coaches?
Not by themselves. The state clearances are required by Pennsylvania law and must also be submitted and approved through your state association's risk management system, but US Soccer additionally requires annual SafeSport training, and associations add concussion training and a risk management agreement. Both layers must be current for a coach to be rostered.
Does SafeSport training count as a Pennsylvania background clearance?
No. SafeSport is abuse-prevention training required annually under US Soccer Policy 212-3. It is not a background check and does not substitute for any of the three Act 153 clearances.
How often do Pennsylvania soccer coaches need to renew their clearances?
State clearances are valid for 60 months (five years) from each document's issue date. SafeSport and concussion training renew annually. Because the clocks differ, clubs should track every item's expiration individually.
Can a volunteer coach skip the FBI fingerprint check in Pennsylvania?
Unpaid volunteers who have been continuous Pennsylvania residents for the past 10 years may sign a disclosure statement affidavit instead of the FBI fingerprint check. The exemption never applies to paid coaches, and a volunteer clearance cannot be carried into a paid role.
Which state association does my Pennsylvania club belong to?
Pennsylvania has two US Youth Soccer state associations: Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer in the east (risk management runs through GotSport) and PA West Soccer in the west (its own risk management system). Your club's affiliation determines where clearances are uploaded and how roster compliance is checked.