This seems shockingly dumb. I wasn't aware of such things going on in the US, my cultural knowledge on the subject of growing up in the US was of kids roaming around on their bikes all day.
There are some glimmers of sanity emerging though, but it's very nascent. This org in particular is doing some good work: https://letgrow.org/ - there are also some stories on the site that explain things much more eloquently than I have.