Each year, 30,000 children and youth are left with long-lasting, significant alterations in social behavioral, physical, and cognitive functioning as a result of traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, identification of students with TBI lags far behind the incidence figures, resulting in TBI being classified as a “low-incidence” disability. Under-identification of these students results in a cycle of under-funding, inadequate service, and continued lack of educator training that further perpetuates these problems. Very little is known about the reasons for this persistent under-identification and how students with TBI are served in public schools.
The Back to School Project, funded by the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Projects (OSEP), is investigating the factors that influence the kinds of services students receive when they return to school following TBI. By following students from the time they are discharged from the hospital through up to nine years of school, the project will track how students’ needs change over time and how schools respond to those needs. 
A companion project, TBI Outcomes, builds on the work begun in the Back to School Project and shares the same subject sample. By looking beyond the issues surrounding identification for special education services, this project allows us to document the impact of mild, moderate, and severe TBI on students’ long-term school and community adjustment, and explore the moderating effects of family, school, community, and social supports on these outcomes.