Lake Washington School District aims to reduce and manage concussions among high school athletes

Efforts aimed at reducing, better managing concussions in football and other sports

Redmond, Wash. – This fall, Lake Washington School District (LWSD) is implementing a comprehensive program aimed at reducing and managing concussions among high school athletes in the district. This program has several parts: "Heads Up" concussion training for all football coaches; neurocognitive testing that can help determine if a student-athlete is concussed; and replacing all football helmets that have lower protection ratings.

“As doctors and scientists have learned more about the effects of concussions, it has become clear that we need to put more protections in place for students most at risk,” noted Dr. Traci Pierce, superintendent. “We want to approach this issue from a prevention standpoint first as well as appropriately managing concussions that do happen.”  Read More >>

Focus on football

While concussions can happen in all sports, football student-athletes are at higher risk for concussion than most other sports. Several of the district’s efforts will focus on football.

Coach training: Beginning this year, the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association will require concussion management training for football head coaches, and all coaches starting in the 2016-17 school year. LWSD trained all high school football coaches on August 17. The “Heads Up” training was developed by USA Football.

Five-star football helmets: Research by Virginia Tech has revealed differences in concussion risk depending on the type of helmet. Virginia Tech developed a rating system to differentiate helmets, ranging from one star, or least protective, to five star, or most protective. The district is removing all helmets rated less than four stars from inventory and have purchased five-star helmets to replace them. All new helmets purchased in the future will be five-star helmets.

Parent communication: As part of the “Heads Up” training, the district will hold meetings for parents of football student-athletes. Parents will learn more about concussions and what they can do in the event their student suffers a concussion. Schools will also communicate with parents of students in other sports about concussions through the school year.

Testing for the future

LWSD is also instituting a program of neurocognitive testing of student-athletes, using the ImPACT program. This test establishes a personal baseline assessment of student-athlete neurocognitive functioning. In the event of a concussion, the student is retested to compare results. This information helps determine if concussion has occurred without having to rely solely on the student to report systems or on observing symptoms.

Testing will begin in the fall with football and girls’ soccer, in conjunction with Children’s Hospital. Other sports will be added as the year goes on. The goal is eventually to test all student-athletes in the district.