Glossary¶
Definitions of the legal, school and statistical terms used on this site. For medical terms, see the Epilepsy Foundation.
Charter school : A publicly funded school that operates independently of a traditional district. Covered by Minn. Stat. 121A.24, the same as public districts.
Cohen's kappa : A statistic that measures how much two independent raters agree, corrected for chance. Values above 0.81 are considered "almost perfect" agreement.
EDAN (Epilepsy Data & Advocacy Network) : The student-led project behind this site. We assemble public epilepsy data that is buried or scattered and publish it in one place. See About EDAN.
Individualized health plan (IHP) : A written plan kept by the school nurse describing how to manage a student's health condition at school. A seizure action plan is a type of IHP.
Licensed school nurse (LSN) : A registered nurse with additional school-nurse licensure. Districts with 1,000 or more students must provide a licensed school nurse or an approved alternative (Minn. Stat. 121A.21). 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).
Logistic regression : A statistical method used to find which factors predict a yes/no outcome, such as whether a district posts a seizure plan.
Minn. Stat. 121A.24 : Minnesota's seizure-safety law (enacted 2021, effective school year 2022-23). Requires seizure action plans and staff training in public and charter schools.
MSBA Policy 516 : The Minnesota School Boards Association model policy on "Student Medication." Most districts use it; many versions never mention seizures.
Public findability : Whether a resource (here, a seizure plan) can be found by the public on a district's website. Not the same as legal compliance.
Rescue medication : Medication prescribed to stop a seizure that lasts too long or repeats, given according to a student's seizure action plan.
Seizure Action Plan (SAP) : A short written document, completed by family and healthcare provider, telling school staff exactly how to respond to a specific student's seizures.