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 specia l education services provided to youths who had sustained one or more traum atic brain injuries (TBIs) according to parental report but who did not hav e verified TBIs according to school records. A parental questionnaire formu lated for a related research project served as the basis for data collectio n. Results indicated the most common special education verification categor ies both for students with and without reported TBIs were speech-language i mpairment and specific learning disability. Approximately 29% of children w ith reported TBIs received special education services-a percentage not diff ering significantly from students without TBIs. However, students with TBIs whose parents reported long-term consequences were significantly more like ly to receive special education services than students with TBIs whose pare nts did not report long-term consequence or students without TBIs. A chi-sq uare analysis using the number of students whose reported TBIs occurred bef ore versus after special education evaluations revealed no significant diff erence in the types of services received. However, those evaluated for spec ial education services after sustaining TBIs were more than two times as li kely to receive services for behavioural disorders than those evaluated pri or to sustaining TBIs.