The White House held a summit today to address youth sports concussions.

“Too little is known about the effects of head injuries in our young athletes,” said S&S Worldwide Co-President Hy Schwartz, a visiting attendee. “I’m very interested in what the president has to say on the role that educators can play in preventing concussions,” he added.

Schwartz joined representatives of professional sports leagues, coaches, parents, youth sports players, researchers and others from across the nation at the White House Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit. President Obama announced new commitments by both the public and private sectors to raise awareness about how to identify, treat and prevent concussions, and conduct additional research in the field of sports-related concussions.

Obama also highlighted pledges of money and other support from the NFL, the National Institutes of Health, the Pop Warner Little Scholars and others to do the research, promote safety and speed development of materials designed to provide better protection.

“He, as a parent, is concerned about the safety of his own daughters,” White House Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri said in a press release.

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that can be caused by a blow to the head or by body blows that cause the brain to bounce around or twist inside the skull. Nearly 250,000 kids visit hospital emergency rooms each year with brain injuries caused by sports or other recreational activity, the White House said.

In a report last fall, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council called for a national system to track sports-related concussions and begin answering questions about the risks of youth sports, such as how often the youngest athletes suffer concussions or which sports have the highest rates.

Making among the largest commitments to the issue, the NCAA and the Defense Department are launching a $30 million effort to produce research on concussion risks, treatment and management.