Senate Bill 2398 continues its march through the Texas legislature with passage out of the Texas Senate Committee on Education in mid-April. As a reminder, SB 2398 is a bill that will help students in Texas who are recovering from concussions and other brain injuries upon their return to school.
It is well understood and accepted in our society that when a student suffers an injury of any kind that a student needs accommodation upon their return to school. For instance, if a student suffers a broken leg, and if their school has more than one floor, that student will be allowed to use the teacher’s elevator to get from one floor of the school to the next. This is common sense, and no one ever protests the student’s ability to access the elevator despite it being off-limits to students without a broken leg.
Students recovering from concussions and other brain injuries, however, have routinely been unable to get needed accommodation upon their return to school. I have many thoughts as to why that is the case, from the “invisible” nature of the injury (there’s no cast on the student’s head, after all), to the fact that brain injury just isn’t that well understood by average educators and administrators. Whatever the reason, it’s unfair to the student recovering from a concussion.
I’ve used this analogy several times in previous blog posts, but it’s worth repeating here: We would never expect a student with a broken leg, hobbling around school on crutches, to get back out on the field and play football. It’s beyond ridiculous. The image of a football player with a cast on their leg “going long” on a thirty-yard-deep post pattern is laughable. It’s also cruel, embarrassing for the coaches, painful and impossible for the student athlete, and literally a joke.
Somehow, however, we tolerate the same type of ridiculous lack of accommodation for students recovering from concussions in their classrooms. Instead of the thirty-yard-deep post pattern, it’s a final exam. Instead of a run up the middle with crutches, it’s a science project with rigorous intellectual demands. Put a student in a cast and we help them no matter what. Have a student show up to school with a brain injury and we act like nothing’s wrong.
We can, and must, do better.
This is where SB 2398 comes in. When (if?) it is finally signed into law by the Governor, it will be a huge step in the direction of finally acknowledging that a student recovering from a concussion, or other brain injury, needs the same degree of help as a student recovering from any other type of injury.
Hats off to the incredible senators who understand this and have been pushing for the development and passage of SB 2398. Under their enlightened leadership, Texas is on the verge of making real change in a way that will help thousands of students each year who are recovering from concussions and other brain injuries. This change can’t happen soon enough. Onward.
