Sarah Shulze told her college coach she was having thoughts of suicide. The coach did not follow up, and weeks later, on April 13, 2022, the University of Wisconsin–Madison track and cross country athlete from California's Ventura County died by suicide. Now a bill carrying her name is one signature away from reshaping how California trains the adults who oversee college athletes' mental health.
A Ventura County Runner's Name on Statewide Legislation
Assembly Bill 1985, which would be known as Sarah Shulze's Law if signed, passed the California Assembly unanimously in May 2026 and now awaits state Senate consideration and the governor's signature, according to The Sacramento Bee. The bill would require mental-health training for all coaches and trainers at public and private higher education institutions in California, with that training renewed every two years. No lawmaker has voted against it so far, per the same report.
Shulze studied political science and competed on Wisconsin's track and field and cross country teams. Before Wisconsin, she experienced anxiety that the Bee reports was exacerbated by an unhealthy team environment. Her coach did not proceed after receiving information about her suicidal thoughts, the outlet notes, a detail that has become central to the case for mandatory training rather than discretionary awareness.
What the Training Would Actually Require
Under AB 1985, required training must cover suicide prevention education at minimum, and the Bee reports the training can be provided online and free of cost — removing cost as a barrier institutions might otherwise cite. Mental Health First Aid is cited as one example of a program that could satisfy the requirement, since it trains individuals to recognize and respond to signs of mental-health challenges.
The bill is part of a package of three measures addressing student mental-health training, the Bee reports. A companion measure, Assembly Bill 1626, outlines training topics including suicide prevention, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and referrals to professional resources — while a separate bill, Assembly Bill 1665, would extend similar mandates to K-12 school athletics, according to the Assembly Committee on Education. That K-12 measure would require coaches to complete training approved by the California Department of Education every two years starting in the 2027–28 school year.
Where California's Colleges and Universities Stand
Compliance dates and institutional buy-in vary. Higher education institutions covered by the bill must comply by July 1, 2028, according to the Bee. The University of California already requires mental-health training for its coaches and supports AB 1985, per the same report, while the California State University system and California Community Colleges have taken no position on the bill. Separately, the Assembly Committee on Higher Education notes that because the UC system has constitutional autonomy, the state can only formally request its compliance rather than mandate it, even as CSU, community colleges, and eligible private colleges are directed to compile lists of approved trainings by that same 2028 deadline.
A Second Bill From the Same Author
AB 1985 was authored by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who also authored Katie Meyer's Law, AB 1575, in 2024. That earlier law requires California public colleges and universities to allow students to select an adviser during disciplinary processes, a response to the death of Stanford soccer goalkeeper Katie Meyer, who died by suicide in March 2022 after being threatened with disciplinary action months before her graduation. Irwin has said coaches need training to identify at-risk young people and ensure they receive needed resources.
The Meyer case has since inspired federal action. U.S. Representative Julia Brownley introduced legislation in September 2025 modeled on Katie Meyer's Law that would extend the right to an independent adviser during campus disciplinary proceedings to college students nationwide, developed in collaboration with the nonprofit Katie's Save, according to the Stanford Daily.
A Family Turns Grief Into Advocacy
Sarah Shulze's mother, Brigitte Shulze, is working with California lawmakers on the legislation. She has said Sarah would be proud to have her name attached to a bill supporting healthier team environments and prioritizing mental health, according to the Bee. Before Wisconsin, Sarah was named the 2018 Ventura County Female Athlete of the Year after winning both the 1600-meter and 3200-meter titles at the CIF Division 3 track and field championships, and she went on to earn Academic All-Big Ten honors while interning in the Wisconsin state legislature, per FOX 11 Los Angeles. Following her death, her family established the Sarah Shulze Foundation, which funds scholarships at Oak Park High School and hosts community education events such as Together for Mental Health, according to the Sarah Shulze Foundation.
A National Pattern in College Athlete Deaths
The push for mandatory coach training arrives amid data showing rising risk among college athletes nationally. A 20-year retrospective study published in April 2024 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that suicide rates among NCAA student-athletes doubled between 2002 and 2022, making suicide the second leading cause of death among college athletes after accidents, according to Forbes. The study, which analyzed 1,102 NCAA athlete deaths, found suicide accounted for 11.5 percent of the total, with male athletes representing 77 percent of suicide cases.
Researchers analyzing the same 20 years of NCAA mortality data found that male cross-country athletes had the highest suicide rate of any collegiate sport, recorded at one per 29,815 athlete-years, according to UW Medicine. Researchers pointed to high academic pressures, perfectionism, intense physical fatigue, and individual athletic identity as factors that heighten mental health risk in distance running — the same sport Shulze competed in.
California Joins a Broader State Trend
California would not be the first state to mandate this kind of training. Maryland passed a law in 2024 requiring public higher education institutions and high schools to provide mental-health training for athletic coaches, joining at least eight other states with similar requirements for high-school coaches. California has also built a voluntary foundation for this work: state officials reported in October 2025 that the voluntary 25×25 Challenge had trained more than 25,000 coaches statewide in youth sports mental health literacy, as Hoodline reported at the time. AB 1985 would convert that kind of voluntary literacy effort into a legal requirement for California's colleges and universities.
