Blog Posts

Why ITAP Matters: Ensuring students with concussions receive essential support upon returning to school is crucial for their long-term success. Texas has the opportunity to lead the nation in creating effective Return to School policies.

Great brain injury policy must be based on great science, so what else does science tell us about accommodation for students recovering from concussions?

The transition from the hospital back to school after a brain injury is a pivotal moment that can greatly impact a student’s academic and emotional well-being.

CBIRT’s work in the area of accommodation for students recovering from concussions is recognized as being on the cutting edge of educational evolution. Dylan Keusch’s work at Cornell is a testament to that.

If you’ve seen one brain injury…you’ve seen one brain injury. Since each brain injury is different, accommodation for brain injuries must be varied and flexible. 

If we accommodate some, but not all, of a student’s needs when they’re recovering from a concussion, we disrespect that student.  A student’s school life is more than just classes, and a brain injury touches all of it.

Academic accommodation is one thing, but protecting a student recovering from a concussion from bullies who want to injure the student even more, is equally important. For accommodation to be successful, they must be holistic addressing all aspects of a student’s school life.

Change is hard for individuals, and harder for society.  But, when change is necessary to help protect our children’s health, we should strive to find the collective will to make those changes happen. 

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in students is often undetected, leading to a lack of specialized educational support for the majority who suffer from its effects. To address this, there's a need for increased awareness, better communication between medical and educational sectors, and improved identification protocols to ensure affected students receive necessary assistance.

We don’t allow students with concussions to play sports until they’re fully recovered from their brain injury, but we’ll let a student recovering from a concussion take a physics test. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.