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Recent Board Activity: What the Board Decided in April 2026

In April 2026, the newest complete month in the Board of Veterans' Appeals published record, the Board issued 9,836 decisions covering 26,092 issues. Of the issues decided on the merits, 48.4% were granted, 4.7 points above the trailing-12-month average of 43.7%.

9,836decisions in April 2026

48.4%of decided issues granted

31.7%of all issues remanded

+4.7 ptsvs 12-month average

How this research is built: every Board of Veterans' Appeals decision published by VA is public. RateMyVSO downloads and analyzes the complete record weekly, and this page always reports the newest complete month, decisions publish two to three months behind the decision date, and a month only becomes the report month once its volume reaches the corpus's normal monthly level. Modern-era (AMA) appeals only.

Updated July 25, 2026

Grant and remand rates by condition, April 2026

The 20 most-decided conditions that month. Grant rate is granted of decided issues (granted plus denied); the remand column is remands as a share of all issues for that condition, remanded issues are sent back for more development, not decided:

Condition	Decided	Grant rate	Remand share
Posttraumatic stress disorder DC 9411	872	56.4%	20.3%
Hearing loss DC 6100	681	29.1%	22.9%
Tinnitus, recurrent DC 6260	614	65%	14.8%
Sleep Apnea Syndromes DC 6847	605	62.3%	37.9%
Lumbosacral or cervical strain DC 5237	561	56.9%	38.4%
Paralysis of sciatic nerve DC 8520	536	53.5%	30.2%
Hypertensive vascular disease DC 7101	353	37.1%	36.8%
Scars, other; and other effects of scars evaluated under diagnostic codes 7800, 7801, 7802, or 7804 DC 7805	307	32.2%	17.8%
Migraine DC 8100	304	63.8%	36.2%
Unspecified depressive disorder DC 9435	216	51.9%	28.2%
Diabetes mellitus DC 7913	197	46.7%	39.9%
Major depressive disorder DC 9434	193	62.2%	20.8%
Gastroesophageal reflux disease DC 7206	192	44.3%	35.3%
Other specified anxiety disorder DC 9410	167	53.9%	30.4%
Intervertebral disc syndrome DC 5243	161	60.2%	29.9%
Degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic DC 5003	160	65%	37.5%
Paralysis of median nerve DC 8515	150	50%	35%
Erectile dysfunction, with or without penile deformity DC 7522	138	44.2%	37.3%
Arteriosclerotic heart disease DC 7005	126	53.2%	36.3%
Residuals of traumatic brain injury DC 8045	121	43%	27.2%

Reading this: these describe one month of published Board decisions. A single month is a snapshot, condition-level rates move around, and none of this predicts any individual claim.

Read the April 2026 decisions themselves in BVA Search →

What moved vs March 2026

The biggest month-over-month grant-rate shifts among conditions with at least 50 decided issues in both months. Small samples swing, single-month movement is weather, not climate, so read these as "what changed lately," never as a trend by themselves:

Condition	March	April	Change	Decided (new / prior)
Knee, other impairment of DC 5257	56.9%	72.9%	+16 pts	96 / 181
Degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic DC 5003	52.9%	65%	+12.1 pts	160 / 427
Paralysis of sciatic nerve DC 8520	44.3%	53.5%	+9.2 pts	536 / 282
Paralysis of median nerve DC 8515	40.9%	50%	+9.1 pts	150 / 154
Scars, other; and other effects of scars evaluated under diagnostic codes 7800, 7801, 7802, or 7804 DC 7805	25.8%	32.2%	+6.4 pts	307 / 341
Peripheral vestibular disorders DC 6204	65.1%	44.8%	-20.3 pts	58 / 63
Infections of the skin not listed elsewhere DC 7820	45.2%	32.7%	-12.5 pts	52 / 62
Irritable bowel syndrome DC 7319	56.1%	45.5%	-10.6 pts	112 / 123
Malignant neoplasms of the genitourinary system DC 7528	58.4%	48%	-10.4 pts	100 / 154
Hypertensive vascular disease DC 7101	45.8%	37.1%	-8.7 pts	353 / 419

Highest-volume judges, April 2026

The Veterans Law Judges who signed the most issue decisions in the month, with their grant rate of decided issues and remand count. Factual reporting on public officials' published opinions; see per-judge analytics for career-long numbers:

Judge	Issues	Grant rate	Remanded
Harvey P. Roberts	338	28.6%	101
A. ISHIZAWAR	324	32.3%	108
DUSTIN L. WARE	320	46.3%	99
Jonathan Hager	314	80.4%	33
H.M. WALKER	309	45.2%	102
Michael J. Skaltsounis	300	74.1%	93
J. PARKER	297	45.2%	34
RAY BARTO SLABBEKORN, JR.	293	54.3%	14
B. D. WATSON	292	45.5%	82
Ardie A. Bland	290	44%	105

Why April 2026 and not the current calendar month

VA publishes Board decisions on a delay, and a month can appear in the record partially before it finishes filling in. This report flips to a newer month only when that month's published volume reaches the corpus's normal monthly level (9,609 decisions median; April 2026 = 11,613). The last eight months of the record:

September 202512,295

October 202511,820

November 20258,606

December 20259,609

January 20269,070

February 20264,154

March 202611,046

April 2026 , this report11,613

Methodology

Issue-level aggregates over published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions decided in April 2026, modern-era (AMA) appeals only. Grant rate is granted divided by granted-plus-denied; remands and dismissals are excluded from the rate. The condition table requires at least 50 decided issues per condition; the movers table requires 50 in both months compared. Baseline is the twelve months of the record preceding the report month. Figures refresh every Monday as new decisions publish; the report month advances automatically when a newer month's record is complete.

Cite this research

RateMyVSO. (July 25, 2026). Recent Board Activity: Outcomes of 26,092 Board of Veterans' Appeals Issues Decided in April 2026. https://ratemyvso.net/dc/recent-board-activity

Free to cite and link with attribution. Figures derived from published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions.

Educational and encyclopedic only, not legal advice, and not a prediction of any individual claim. Figures describe patterns in published Board decisions. For help with a claim, find a VA-accredited representative.