Special education services provided to students with and without parental reports of traumatic brain injury

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and type of special education services provided to youths who had sustained one or more traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) according to parental report but who did not have verified TBIs according to school records. A parental questionnaire formulated for a related research project served as the basis for data collection. Results indicated the most common special education verification categories both for students with and without reported TBIs were speech-language impairment and specific learning disability. Approximately 29% of children with reported TBIs received special education services--a percentage not differing significantly from students without TBIs. However, students with TBIs whose parents reported long-term consequences were significantly more likely to receive special education services than students with TBIs whose parents did not report long-term consequence or students without TBIs. A chi-square analysis using the number of students whose reported TBIs occurred before versus after special education evaluations revealed no significant difference in the types of services received. However, those evaluated for special education services after sustaining TBIs were more than two times as likely to receive services for behavioural disorders than those evaluated prior to sustaining TBIs.