Seizure-Safe Schools¶
Status: active since 2026. Flagship initiative.
The gap¶
Since the 2022-23 school year, Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. 121A.24) has required public and charter schools to set up a seizure action plan, with a trained person at each site, for each student whose family reports a diagnosed seizure disorder and prescribed seizure medication. Nobody checks. We reviewed the public websites of all 329 regular school districts and found that about 7 in 10 post no seizure-specific plan a family or a substitute teacher could find. The gap tracks district size rather than rurality, which makes it a capacity problem.
A plan that is not posted can still exist, and most districts that answered our follow-up said theirs do. The audit measures whether a family can find one, which is a different question.
The audit also left out charter schools, which the same law covers. Minnesota had 181 operating charter schools with about 69,800 students in 2023-24, roughly 8 percent of public school enrollment (National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data). Most are small. Half enroll fewer than 215 students, and in regular districts small size was the strongest predictor of posting no plan. We have not checked their websites yet.
The law stops at public and charter schools. Minnesota also had 467 nonpublic schools in 2024-25, with 72,871 students in kindergarten through grade 12 (Minnesota Department of Education). At the CDC's rate of about 0.6 percent of children, roughly 440 of those students have epilepsy, and no Minnesota law requires their school to have a seizure plan.
The full method, the charts, the county map and the reliability check are in The Audit: Mapping the Gaps.
What we are doing this year¶
- Contacting every no-plan district, in order of need, with a free drop-in packet: a seizure action plan template with links to the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota's Spanish, Hmong and Somali versions, board policy language, a first-aid poster.
- Asking each district one question once staff are back: do you now have a plan on file for each student with a seizure disorder and a trained adult at each school? A yes, with a count, is how we measure this initiative.
- Asking the Minnesota School Boards Association to cite 121A.24 in its model policy, the one most small districts adopt word for word. Today it does not. MSBA's general counsel replied in September 2026 that the association is deciding whether the language belongs in the medication policy or the crisis-management policy that already covers cardiac response plans, and is consulting the Department of Health. No date is set.
- Adding a language layer: 25 no-plan districts have ten percent or more English learners, about 15,000 English learners in all (federal data for 2021). They get the Spanish, Hmong, and Somali templates first.
- Re-auditing all 329 districts in spring 2027 and publishing the before-and-after map.
- Running the same audit on the 467 nonpublic schools and offering them the same free packet. Nothing requires them to have a plan, so a plan gets written only if someone asks.
Explore: how one district compares¶
Type a district to see its result beside districts of the same kind and size, the rest of its county and the state, with links to similar districts that post a plan.
Explore: which no-plan districts need translated plans first¶
Hover a bar for the county and the number of English learners. These 25 districts, all without a findable seizure plan, get the Spanish, Hmong, and Somali templates first.
Look up any district in Find Your District.
Numbers so far¶
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Districts audited | 329 of 329 |
| Charter schools audited | 0 of 181 (not yet started) |
| Districts with a findable seizure plan | 98 (29.8%) |
| Districts emailed | 147 (June 18 to September 16, 2026) |
| Districts that replied | 18 |
| Districts that confirmed a plan and trained staff by email | 13 (as of September 16, 2026) |
| Districts that adopted a plan after our outreach | 1 |
| Reliability of the audit (blind re-check of 30 districts) | 90% agreement, kappa 0.82 |
| Students with an Other Health Disability IEP in no-plan districts | 7,040 (Minnesota Department of Education, December 1, 2025 count) |
Other Health Disability is a special education category covering many conditions besides epilepsy, among them ADHD, diabetes, and asthma, so this is not a count of students with epilepsy. It is the closest published proxy for how many students in no-plan districts have a health condition serious enough to need an individualized education plan. The ten districts with the largest counts are all large and in the lowest nurse-staffing risk tier, so a single posted plan in one of them would reach more students than many small districts combined.
What a district told us¶
One district had no formal plan when our first email arrived. A staff member covering the health office used the packet to put one in place, and wrote back:
In their words
Your initial email that came in August was such a blessing! As I had been working through things, I had discovered that we (the district) did indeed have three students with seizure disorders and we had no formal plan in place, nor did I have the time to dedicate to finding what we would need on top of my other regular duties.
With the help of your packet, I can say that we now have a plan in place for all students and that staff know what to do. I am grateful to you for all of the work you put into this packet! It is a wonderful resource and one that I plan to keep handy for reference in the future.
District staff member, a Minnesota public school district, September 2026. Shared with permission; name and district withheld.
Check yourself¶
1. What share of Minnesota districts post a findable seizure plan?
About 30 percent (98 of 329). About 70 percent post none, most of them only a general medication policy that never mentions seizures. Posting and having are different things: many districts keep individual plans on file and train staff without putting anything online, as most districts that answered our follow-up emails told us.
2. What predicts whether a district posts a plan: being rural, or being small?
Being small. Once enrollment is in the model, rurality is no longer significant. The gap is a capacity problem, which is why small districts need the work done for them.
3. Does 'no plan found online' mean a district is breaking the law?
No. We measure public findability, not compliance. A district may have an internal plan. That is why we ask each district directly before counting anything.
For schools¶
The free packet is a 7-page PDF. If your district already has plans and trained staff in place, tell us and we will correct your entry in Find Your District.