Abstract OBJECTIVE To investigate whether returning to school can reduce advanced cognitive impairment related to chemo-radiotherapy in children with brain tumors. METHOD From 2013 to 2018, 132 children with brain tumors aged 3-14 who received chemo-radiotherapy for brain tumors were retrospectively analyzed for gender, tumor type, age of radiotherapy, education level, place of residence, and return to school. The Wechsler Intelligence Test was conducted before and 5-10 years after radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and they were divided into a return to school regular class group, a return to school family/community education group, and a non return to school no education group. RESULT 78 cases were in the group of returning to school for regular classes, 30 cases were in the group of returning to school for family/community education, and 24 cases were in the group of not returning to school without teaching. The verbal intelligence, operational intelligence, and overall intelligence of the group returning to school and attending regular classes were significantly higher than the other two groups. The return to school situation of urban children is better than that of rural children (p=0.028<0.05). Children with germ cell tumors had the best return to school, while those with glioma had the worst return to school (p<0.05). The quality of life score of returning to school children was significantly higher than that of out of school children (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Children returning to school are significantly better than those of out of school children in terms of physiological, emotional, social, and school functions. After 5 years of radiotherapy, the cognitive level of the returning children significantly improved, and the overall quality of life was relatively high.