Generously funded by Donors of Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada

Meera Rayar – University of British Columbia, BC

Project Title: “Health Care Providers and Educators role in school re-integration for Childhood and Adolescent Neuro-Oncology Survivors”

Description of Project:

The educational experiences of children and adolescents diagnosed with brain and spinal tumours can be influenced by several factors, including interruptions in their schooling, concurrent psychological difficulties (e.g. depression, anxiety) and the direct impact of their tumour and treatment on their ability to learn. Survivors school performances can also be impacted by how well they are able to reintegrate back into their school. Findings from a small number of studies have shown that education reintegration plans can assist with communication between survivors, their families, health care providers and educators. These studies, however, often only include the perspectives of one group (only patients, families or health care providers), focused on one type of cancer and/or have a small number of participants. Our previous work has explored brain and spinal tumour survivors and their families lived experiences with re-entering the school system after a cancer diagnosis. This proposed project will build upon this knowledge and examine the viewpoints of health care providers and educators. Collectively, these findings will increase our understanding of brain and spinal tumour survivor experience re-entering their school and allow us to create evidence-based guidelines to assist survivors reintegration into school.

What receiving this award means:

We would like to thank the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada for the support of our project. Attending school not only allows students to learn but the opportunity to develop interests, connect with peers, and form lifelong bonds. With your generous support we will explore pediatric brain tumour survivors’ and their families’ experience re-entering the education system after a cancer diagnosis. This project is being developed by persons with live experience, researchers, educators and healthcare providers. We hope that our project will have a positive impact on how we support our pediatrics survivors in their schooling.

Midpoint Report- August 2026

This study aims to better understand the experiences and perspectives of health care providers (HCPs) and educators who support children and adolescents who have had brain cancer as they return to school.

We conducted interviews with 12 educators from the Vancouver School Board and 11 health care providers from across British Columbia who work with childhood and adolescent neuro-oncology (CANO) survivors. All interviews have now been completed, and we are analyzing the interview transcripts to better understand participants’ experiences and perspectives.

Our preliminary analysis has identified several key areas that shape the school reintegration experience. These include students’ needs and experiences when returning to school, the role of families in supporting re-entry, how schools and educators respond to students’ needs, and broader system-level factors that can make returning to school easier or more challenging.

Over the next month, we will complete our analysis and further explore these themes.

The findings from this study will be combined with our ongoing research into the experiences of CANO survivors and their families as they navigate returning to school.

Together, these findings will help inform the development of an educational module designed to support CANO survivors, their families, health care providers, and educators throughout the school reintegration process. Our goal is to provide practical guidance and resources that can help make the transition back to school more supportive and responsive to the needs of CANO survivors and their families.