Children with TBI
A student sustains a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a series of transitions starts to unfurl. Initially, care within the hospital needs to be coordinated between emergency services, intensive care, and rehabilitation services. Later, the student has to be carefully transitioned from hospital services to home and from home back into the school. Furthermore, ongoing management of students with TBI requires planned transitions between academic subjects, classrooms, grade-to-grade changes, and schools (elementary, middle, secondary). Yet, by far the most challenging transition is encountered when students with TBI graduate from public school services and transition into the adult world. Many students with TBI who were successful in well-structured and well-funded public school programs now face another set of barriers to overcome. This article addresses transition plans and strategies that are pertinent to students with TBI, including federal mandates, evaluation tools, employment skills, postsecondary education, independent living, and community participation.
From Preventing School Failure, Summer 2005. Heldref Publications. Www.heldref.org.