After your child has received the diagnosis of concussion, how do they  RETURN to SCHOOL, RETURN to LEARN and eventually  RETURN to PLAY/SPORT?

In REAP, the term Return to School is not interchangeable with Return to Learn… and both have to successfully happen before Return to Play/Sport can even be considered. 

Return to School means the student physically goes back and ... puts a "seat in a seat" at school. The decision to send a child to school each day is made by parents, sometimes with input from an HCP, and should encourage the student to learn to manage their symptoms at school. 

With a concussion, some students have very few symptoms, while others have strong symptoms. That’s why a “one-size-fits-all” plan for coming back to school doesn’t work. Usually, after a few days of rest at home, most kids are ready to return. Symptoms will probably still be there, but they should, with help from the school, become manageable over time.

Parents/Guardians: Don’t keep your child home for the whole concussion just because they still have some symptoms.
Healthcare Providers: Don’t tell parents/guardians to wait until their child is completely symptom-free before returning them to school; that could possibly hold them out of school for weeks.

Keeping students home for too long can hurt their development, make them feel socially isolated, fall behind in school, feel sicker than they are, and even increase anxiety or depression.

Going back to school part-time (i.e.,  half days or every other day) can also be disruptive for the student, teachers, and parents. Full days at school, with some help from school professionals, lets students hear lessons, keep learning, and lets teachers adjust classwork or homework as needed.

Not returning to school full-time makes it hard for the school to provide a proper Return to Learn plan.

Return to Learn is how teachers help students with a concussion learn as much as possible without making their symptoms worse.

Once a student is back at school, the school team can start helping them for the rest of their recovery.

Return to Learn is the extra support teachers give in class, like:

• Sitting in the best spot in class
• Using audiobooks or notes from a classmate
• Changing assignments (like doing a group project instead of an essay, or making a collage instead of writing a report)
• Adjusting the number of problems on homework or tests

These supports only work if the student is in class and hearing lessons. If students miss class, and therefore miss instruction, teachers don't even have a place to start to adjust down the work. How does one adjust down work that was never learned?

Falling grades after a concussion usually happen because:

1. Parents/Guardians or HCPs don’t send the student back to school soon enough
2. Teachers don’t provide enough support through a Return to Learn plan

Going back to school quickly and getting classroom support is needed before a student can safely return to play or sports.

Families and Schools should work together after a concussion:

• Parents/guardians should contact the school about the diagnosis of concussion and that the student may be absent for a few days. When the student is ready to Return to School, parents/guardians should communicate with someone at the school. This could be the school nurse, health tech, teacher, counselor, or mental health staff.

• Parents/guardians and school staff should decide together what academic changes are needed, based on:

  • How strong the symptoms are

  • What type of symptoms the student has

  • What times of day the student feels better or worse

• The student should not do any high-risk physical activity &/or any physical activity that risks another hit to the head, at school, in sports, PE, dance, or recess until it is deemed safe.

• If noise causes symptoms, consider temporarily removing the student from band or music class, but let them return with noise-reducing headphones as soon as possible.