The Audit: Mapping the Gaps¶
This is the study the rest of the schools work rests on. We asked a question with a measurable answer: how many Minnesota school districts post a seizure plan that families and staff can actually find? The charts below are interactive: hover over them, or tap, for the numbers.
Want to check your own district?
Jump to Find Your District and search your district by name.
How we measured it¶
For all 329 of Minnesota's regular public school districts, we reviewed the official district website: the school-board policy page (MSBA Policy 516, Student Medication), the health-services page, and the student/parent handbook. The first pass used AI-assisted web searches to find these pages, applying a fixed rubric. We classified each district into one of four categories:
| Category | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Seizure plan posted | A seizure-specific plan or page is publicly findable |
| Medication policy only | A general medication policy exists, but never mentions seizures |
| Nothing found | No relevant policy posted online |
| Could not check | Site or policies were inaccessible |
What this measures
We measured public findability, not legal compliance. A district with nothing posted may still have an internal plan. That is why this is a starting point for outreach, not a verdict on any school.
What we found¶
~70% of districts post no publicly findable seizure-specific plan (231 of 329, including 18 we could not check). Only about 30% do (98 of 329). Most districts post only a general medication policy that never mentions seizures.
Corrected September 25, 2026: a re-check found a seizure action plan form on Paynesville Area Schools' health services page that the June check missed. The count of districts with a posted plan moved from 97 to 98.
The numbers in this chart
| What the district posts | Districts | Share of 329 |
|---|---|---|
| Seizure plan posted | 98 | 30% |
| Medication policy only (no seizure mention) | 195 | 59% |
| Nothing relevant found online | 18 | 5% |
| Could not check | 18 | 5% |
The gap follows a strong gradient by district type¶
City and suburban districts are far more likely to post a plan than town and rural districts. A statistical test confirms this is not chance (chi-square p < 0.0001).
The numbers in this chart
| District type | Districts | Post a seizure plan |
|---|---|---|
| City | 14 | 71% |
| Suburb | 33 | 58% |
| Town | 56 | 41% |
| Rural | 226 | 20% |
Where the gaps are, county by county¶
Each county is shaded by the share of its districts with no public seizure plan; the key beside the map gives the scale. Hover any county for its numbers. The gap covers most of Greater Minnesota and is smaller in the metro area.
The district-level data behind the map, with each district's county, is in the audit file, available on request.
The real driver is size, not "rural"¶
We built a logistic regression to ask what predicts a public plan. The dominant factor was district enrollment, bigger districts are far more likely to post a plan. Once we accounted for size, "rural" was no longer a significant predictor on its own. You can see the size effect directly:
The numbers in this chart
| District enrollment | Districts | Post a seizure plan |
|---|---|---|
| Under 500 | 82 | 11% |
| 500-999 | 96 | 19% |
| 1,000-2,499 | 76 | 29% |
| 2,500-9,999 | 58 | 67% |
| 10,000+ | 15 | 67% |
Two of the 329 districts have no enrollment figure and are left out, so the table covers 327.
The honest interpretation: this is a capacity problem. Small districts, most of which are rural, simply do not have the nursing and administrative staff to write and post a current plan. Minnesota's own data backs this up. About half of Minnesota school districts and charter schools have no licensed school nurse. Among regular public districts more than 1 in 3 have none, and in public districts under 500 students it is 79% (MDH, School Nurse Workforce: A 2022 Snapshot).
And the gap tends to be larger where community health needs are higher, hover the bubbles (size = number of districts in that county):
This changes how we help: do not lecture small districts, do the work for them with a ready-to-use packet.
What this means for you¶
"No plan posted" measures what a family can find online. A district may still have a plan on file. Look up your district in Find Your District. For help with a child's plan, contact the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota.
If your district is in the ~70%, closing the gap is straightforward with ready-to-use materials. See the free drop-in packet: a seizure action plan template, policy language that cites 121A.24, and a printable poster. The single biggest step is simply posting a seizure action plan template on your health-services page.
How reliable is this?¶
We re-checked a stratified random sample of 30 districts in a separate pass that did not see the first ratings. The two passes agreed 90% of the time (Cohen's kappa 0.82 across the four categories, "almost perfect", and 0.80 for plan versus no plan, "substantial"). When they disagreed, the second pass usually found more seizure content, which means our 70% figure may slightly overstate the gap, an error in the safe direction.
Data sources: NCES and Urban Institute district roster, CDC PLACES county health data, and the MDH school nurse workforce report. The campaign built on these findings is Seizure-Safe Schools. Look up a single district in Find Your District.