Evidence-Based Yoga in Schools: What the Research Shows

In 2025 a research team from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Emory University needed a yoga curriculum they could safely use with children in active cancer treatment, on a transplant unit, some of them immunocompromised.

They used ours.

“The study utilized Grounded Kids Yoga which incorporates the principles and practices found in Hatha Yoga.”

“Grounded Kids provides 84 poses which served as the foundation for the yoga intervention sessions.”

Every child enrolled received Grounded Kids pose cards and a handbook. The study found the intervention safe and feasible. Read about the study.

What the research says about yoga in schools

Every study named below is linked to its record so you can read it yourself. Where the evidence is thin, this page says so.

Mental health and emotional regulation

The strongest area of the literature. A meta-analysis of 33 randomized controlled trials covering 3,666 children and adolescents found small to moderate improvements in mindfulness, attention, emotional regulation and mental health (Dunning et al., 2018). The clearest single trial is Sibinga et al. (2016) in Pediatrics, with urban middle school students. Two earlier randomized trials put yoga inside the regular high school day (Khalsa et al., 2012; Noggle et al., 2012).

Stress, measured in saliva

In a ten week classroom yoga program, one second grade class showed a drop in baseline cortisol and their teacher reported improvements in behavior, while the third grade class showed less (Butzer et al., 2015). Cortisol is a stress hormone rather than a self report, though this was a pilot with no control group. School age girls in a mindful yoga program reported less stress and better coping (White, 2012), and high school students in a qualitative evaluation described using breathing to manage stress outside class (Conboy et al., 2013).

Attention, including ADHD

Real and modest. A randomized trial of preschoolers with ADHD symptoms found modest improvement on an objective attention test and selective improvement on parent ratings, with the clearest gains in the children who began with the most severe symptoms (Cohen et al., 2018). That last detail matches what teachers describe: the children who need it most change most visibly.

Physical development and self-esteem

Twelve weeks of kindergarten yoga improved leg strength, flexibility, speed, balance and global self-esteem, compared with both a physical education group and a control group (Jarraya, Jarraya & Nouira, 2022). An early controlled study found improved static motor performance in school children after yoga training (Telles et al., 1993).

The adults in the room

A randomized controlled trial of female teachers found improvements in psychological state, sleep quality and cognitive function after a yogic relaxation practice (Rao et al., 2017). Schools underestimate this. A regulated adult is the intervention.

What the research does not show

It does not show yoga raising test scores. Anyone who tells a principal otherwise is going further than the evidence goes. What it shows is improvement in the conditions learning depends on: attention, impulse control, stress recovery, and readiness to receive instruction.

What separates a program that works from one that does not

This is the part that decides whether a school gets a result, and it is the most consistent finding in the literature. Effects are strongest when the practice is short, frequent, embedded in the ordinary school day, and led by trained educators rather than dropped in by an outside facilitator once a week.

Which means the question for a school is not whether to buy a yoga program. It is who in the building is going to be trained to lead it.

Bringing evidence-based yoga into your school

Grounded Kids trains the people already in the building: classroom teachers, counselors, occupational therapists, social workers and school-based yoga teachers. Step 1 covers child development through the chakra system, self-regulation and grounding tools, our trauma-aware sequencing system, visual and sensory tools for accessibility, and ethical ways to teach real yoga to children. Step 2 is devoted to neurodiverse learners.

As a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider our trainings count as continuing education hours for registered yoga teachers, and graduate level credit is offered separately through our partner Courses4Teachers. For educators, counselors and therapists it depends on your district or your licensing board, so check with them and we will provide all the necessary documentation.

To talk about a school or district program, reach out to Amy Haysman at amy@groundedkids.com, or see the full training pathway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there research that proves yoga is effective for children?

There is good evidence, and it is worth being precise about what it shows. A research review in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (Khalsa & Butzer, 2016) found consistent benefits from school-based yoga for stress and emotional regulation. A meta-analysis of 33 randomized trials covering 3,666 children and teens (Dunning et al., 2018) found small to moderate improvements in attention, emotional regulation and mental health.

Real, measurable, worth having, and not a cure for anything. Both studies are named in the sections above. For more research, see Sixteen studies on yoga and mindfulness for kids and teens, each summarized.

What types of research support yoga in public schools?

Most of it is school based and practical. Randomized trials have been run inside real school days: Noggle et al. (2012) and Khalsa et al. (2012) in high school classes, Sibinga et al. (2016) in urban middle schools, and Butzer et al. (2015) with second and third graders, where researchers measured cortisol before and after a ten week classroom program.

The consistent finding is better emotional regulation and classroom behavior, strongest when the practice is short, frequent, and built into the school day rather than added on top of it. Grounded Kids is used in public, private and charter schools and fits into morning meeting, specials, and after school programs.

What does research say about yoga’s effect on children’s emotional development?

Breathwork and mindfulness give children a way to notice and name what they feel. Movement gives them a way to shift it. In the research this shows up as better emotional regulation and lower reactivity, across all 33 trials in the Dunning meta-analysis.

Grounded Kids builds that skill through repeated sequences, heart centered movement, and language children can carry off the mat. Children learn emotional intelligence by practicing it, not by being told about it.

What are the most well-known studies on kids yoga and mindfulness?

The ones cited most often:

  • Khalsa & Butzer (2016), Yoga in school settings: a research review, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
  • Dunning et al. (2018), a meta-analysis of 33 randomized controlled trials covering 3,666 children and adolescents
  • Sibinga et al. (2016), School-Based Mindfulness Instruction: An RCT, Pediatrics
  • Noggle et al. (2012), yoga in a US high school curriculum, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
  • Butzer et al. (2015), classroom yoga and cortisol in second and third graders

We keep a full bibliography of 136 sources.

Are there clinical benefits of yoga for children with special needs or ADHD?

The honest answer is some, and modestly. A randomized trial of preschoolers with ADHD symptoms (Cohen et al., 2018, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics) found modest improvement on an objective attention test and selective improvement on parent ratings, with the clearest gains in the children who started with the most severe symptoms.

Grounded Kids gives you accessible tools, predictable routines, and pose adaptations built for neurodiverse learners. Step 2 is the training devoted to it.

How does yoga affect children’s behavior, focus, and self-regulation?

Slow breathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which is what actually brings a dysregulated child down. Movement builds proprioceptive awareness, the body sense that tells a child where they are and how much force they are using.

Studies of school programs report fewer behavior incidents and faster recovery after stress. Butzer et al. (2015) followed one second grade class and one third grade class through a ten week classroom program. The second graders showed a drop in baseline cortisol and their teacher reported improvements in behavior. The third grade class showed less, and it was a pilot with no control group. In a classroom this looks like fewer disruptions and quicker returns to task.

Is there evidence that yoga helps children with anxiety or trauma?

Yes, and the strongest single piece is Sibinga et al. (2016), a randomized controlled trial of school based mindfulness instruction with urban middle school students, published in Pediatrics.

Gentle movement, patterned breathing and predictable sequences settle the nervous system and build a sense of safety in the body. Grounded Kids teaches co-regulation, sensory anchoring, and emotionally literate language, the foundations of trauma informed teaching.

How does Grounded Kids Yoga align with evidence-based practices?

The program is built around what the research supports: co-regulation, breath based tools, predictable trauma informed routines, and whole child development.

In 2025 a research team from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Emory University used the Grounded Kids curriculum as the intervention in a published feasibility study of yoga for children undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant.

Can yoga and mindfulness improve academic performance in school settings?

Indirectly, and it is worth being straight about this: the research does not show yoga raising test scores.

What it does show is improvement in the things learning depends on, attention, impulse control, and readiness to receive instruction. Use it where that matters most: morning arrival, transitions, after recess, and before a test.

Where can I find peer-reviewed articles or white papers on yoga for children?

Start with our bibliography of 136 sources.

Grounded Kids also appears in the peer reviewed literature itself. Easley, T., Haight, A., Hall, T., Palmer, K., Konter, J., Hayes, R., Nelson, J. L., & Cherven, B. (2025). Feasibility of a Yoga Intervention for Children and Adolescents Undergoing Hematopoietic Cell Transplant. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 45(5), 729 to 744. The team used the Grounded Kids curriculum and found the intervention safe and feasible for children in active transplant care. Read more.

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