As Taylor Coleman completed his Lake Zurich High School football career in 2012, concussion awareness was just coming into the national spotlight and into conversations at the school.
By the time Taylor’s younger brother, Alec, began his high school football career two years later, the school’s athletic department had already developed and implemented policies for when athletes sustain brain injuries.
Taylor and Alec’s mom, Nancy Coleman, commended the school last week for its proactive approach, which she observed firsthand when Alec suffered two concussions in 2014.
“I thought they did an outstanding job with Alec,” the Lake Zurich mom said. “The nursing staff took control of the situation, they notified all of his teachers, he was allowed additional time for assignments because he did have issues with dizziness, concentration. He had the full gamut of symptoms.”
In an attempt to further advance post-concussion care across the state, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill Monday that requires schools to create a concussion oversight team. Effective immediately, the law requires the oversight team to formulate “return-to-play” and “return-to-learn” protocols that schools must apply to every student who suffers a suspected brain injury.
The concussion oversight team must include a physician, and if the school employs them, an athletic trainer and a nurse as well, providing schools flexibility based on their resources.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, a Democrat from Chicago, was one of the bill’s sponsors. He said the physician’s role is to help create the school’s policy, but the doctor doesn’t need to evaluate each case.
Once the protocol is developed, a physician or a school athletic trainer can authorize a student athlete’s return to play. Coaches do not have the authority to clear a student to resume play, according to the legislation.
“The school district has a team to just kind of guide them in their policies,” Raoul said. “Again, we didn’t want to totally micromanage what happens at the local level, but we want to heighten awareness.”
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital approached Raoul last November about expanding existing legislation to include all levels of youth athletics and create more specific protocols. That same day, Raoul said, his then 16-year-old son suffered a concussion while playing basketball.
In January, the hospital followed up with the state senator by phone. That same day, Raoul said, his then 14-year-old daughter suffered a concussion while also playing basketball.
His son was able to return to both learn and play within about three weeks, but his daughter has still yet to be cleared. Her grades also were impacted by the concussion.
“We worked with the school, and the school was able to recognize there was a dramatic difference pre-concussion and post-concussion in her performance and realize that not all students that suffer from a concussion are going to do what they have to do on their part to indicate, ‘hey I’m having a headache,’ so it takes some effort on the school’s part to kind of have protocol in place to make accommodations and be aware,” Raoul said.
The new law expands on initial legislation Raoul sponsored in 2011 requiring student athletes who show concussion symptoms to receive medical approval before returning to play.
Kurt Gibson, associate executive director of the Illinois High School Association, said the association supports the new law for a number of reasons, including its inclusion of a “return-to-learn” protocol.
“We think while there’s been a lot of attention nationally given to ‘return-to-play’ procedures, we’ve been advocating for awhile about also keeping in mind students who’ve suffered a concussion can’t jump right back into full classroom activity,” Gibson said.
Officials noted that concussion symptoms are often invisible to others. A student may struggle with concentration, focus and memory even if those symptoms aren’t readily apparent, explained Dr. Mark Neault, an orthopedic surgeon with Advocate Health Care who is trained in sports medicine.
Neault and Raoul said they hope the new law brings more attention to making academic accommodations for students who suffered a concussion, but some local athletic directors reported that their schools are already using “return-to-learn” policies.
Trish Betthauser, athletic director at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, estimated that nearly every teacher at the Lincolnshire school has dealt with a student recovering from a head injury. She said some teachers will ask questions about the appropriate amount of time to allow students to make up work.
“My response to that — obviously I’m not a medical practitioner — is that every situation is different, and yes, symptoms can linger for weeks, months,” Betthauser said. “That’s why it’s really important to have the process and protocols in place because then I think that teachers have those answers.”
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At Mundelein High School, students with concussion symptoms may attend only a few classes each day following the initial injury. Athletic Director Perry Wilhelm said that although his school already accommodates students, the new law will motivate schools statewide to formalize their “return-to-learn” protocol.
Wauconda High School developed a formal policy after a student athlete struggled academically after sustaining a concussion. This year, the school’s athletic department will begin using a new electronic program to monitor student athletes’ recoveries and communicate guidelines for their returns with students, parents, physicians and teachers.
“This year is going to be an exciting year for us because we really are going to focus in on that ‘return-to-learn’ policy because, again, they’re student athletes, and academics certainly come first,” Athletic Director Andy Lambert said.
The new law expands upon a current policy requiring student athletes and parents to sign a form before the season begins acknowledging having received and read information explaining concussion prevention, symptoms, treatment and oversight. Parents must now also receive information about the guidelines for returning to play following the injury.
Coleman said concussion awareness among parents at Lake Zurich High School has been a “significant change” in the past three to four years.
“It’s more what I would call critically obvious now, whereas back then, (Taylor) still had friends that could not play because of concussions and kids that had had multiple concussions were pulled from play, some even didn’t return to play the next year type of thing,” Coleman said. “So yes, it was still on the radar screen, but I think parents have become significantly more concerned.”
Coleman noted that not all students who suffer from head injuries are athletes, though. Raoul said his daughter suffered a previous concussion on an amusement park ride.
“I think what Gov. Rauner’s trying to do and what the schools have already done is extremely positive, and it’s doing a lot of good to protect kids from future injuries,” Coleman said. “I think everything that’s being done is very strong.”
Twitter @AngelicaLavito