Main roads
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Many schools in the US do not have plans or training to help students rebuild their brains
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A quarter have no concussion policy at all
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Those that do have policies often do not provide information or training on student placement when they return to the classroom
THURSDAY, July 23, 2026 (NewsDay News) — Many U.S. schools are ill-prepared to help students with brain injuries, a new study says.
The researchers reported that a quarter of public schools have no concussion policy at all, and that those with such policies are not adequately trained to help children and adolescents with concussions. Journal of School Nursing.
“This puts additional pressure on school nurses to fill the gaps, whether it’s training colleagues, coordinating care, or providing students with the accommodations they need to recover and succeed,” said the lead researcher. Kelly Sarmiento it is said in the news. He is the Director of Outreach Programs for the Brain Injury Association of America.
Brain can cause headaches and affect a student’s concentration, balance, memory, mood, and sleep. As a result, getting students back into the classroom after a concussion is a delicate process, the researchers say.
“School nurses are absolutely critical in managing concussion in schools, and in many cases they shoulder a significant portion of that responsibility,” Sarmiento said.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data from the 2024 School Pulse Panel, a survey of nearly 1,700 US public school principals. Part of the survey asked about the school’s vibration policy.
The results showed that 75% of schools had a concussion policy in place during the 2023-2024 school year.
Of these schools, only 58% had policies that included information on how to accommodate and support students in the classroom during concussion recovery.
Furthermore, only 29% of schools with a policy require staff training on concussions.
“About 1 in 4 schools reported not having a concussion policy at all, and even among those that did, less than a third required staff training,” Sarmiento said.
The study isn’t designed to explain why schools aren’t adequately prepared to help students with brain damage, but senior research fellow Dana Waltzman proposed some theories.
“Previous research suggests several possible factors, including staffing and resource limitations, lack of access to school health professionals such as nurses or athletic trainers, competing priorities and challenges implementing policies consistently across schools,” said Waltzman, a research professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Indiana University.
“We also found that schools in higher-poverty communities, schools with higher proportions of white students, and smaller schools were less likely to report having a shakeup policy, which may point to differences in resources and capacity,” she said in a news release.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that schools provide assistance to students in the following situations:
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Assign people to monitor the student’s symptoms while at school
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Determine the type and duration of activities that the child can do, depending on their condition
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Short-term changes to their workload and schedule to help them get back to their normal routine
More information
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more information going back to school after a stroke.
Sources: Indiana University, news release, July 16, 2026; Journal of School NursingJuly 16, 2026
What does this mean for you?
Parents of an affected child should talk to their school about plans to return them to their normal classroom routine.
