Prevalence of Concussion-Related Policies and Practices Among Public School Districts in the United States, 2012 and 2016

The dominant framing of the work of public school districts in the United States prevents schools from contesting the indignities they themselves or their neighbors suffer. This incapacitates teachers and learning communities to work toward the attainment of inclusive democracy and the contestation of exclusionary practices and policies. An institutionally-grown advocacy of connection that nurtures intercommunity solidarity can help us redefine the work communities do as they learn to think of themselves as being in connection with other groups in a web of affiliation and care. I suggest that public education take on an informal function of ethical oversight rooted in a strong sense of collective institutional agency. Through such agency schools can recognize and respect and help us work through past and present civic grievances while addressing economic and social realities that give rise to feelings of indignation.

Although animal dissection is common in classrooms, growing concerns for animal welfare and advances in nonanimal teaching methods have prompted the creation of policies that allow students to choose humane alternatives to classroom animal use. We assessed the prevalence and content of policies that allow students to opt out of animal dissection in states and large public school districts across the United States – data that have not previously been collected or analyzed. We found that such policies exist at the state level in 22 states (plus the District of Columbia) and in many large public school districts in the other remaining states. These data illustrate that at least 63% of students in U.S. public schools have access to some kind of dissection choice, although the content of these policies varies widely. We discuss these results and recommend components of a comprehensive student dissection-choice policy.