title: Return to school after spinal cord injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the typical time elapsed between discharge from an inpatient spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation program and the physical return to school, and to identify barriers faced by patients attempting to return to school.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of all patients ages 18 years or younger who sustained SCI between 1989 and 1995, with resultant paraplegia or tetraplegia, and who attended either primary or secondary school, completed their inpatient rehabilitation at our regional SCI center, and were using a wheelchair when discharged from the hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifteen of 16 eligible patients agreed to participate. The median time for subjects with paraplegia to return to school after hospital discharge was 10 days; subjects with tetraplegia required a median of 62 days. Architectural and transportation barriers that patients encountered were identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Individuals with SCI return to school relatively soon after discharge from the hospital. Barriers do not prohibit a return to school, but they are problematic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical College of Wisconsin, Model Spinal Cord Injury Center at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Milwaukee 53226, USA.
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Sandford
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Falk-Palec
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Spears
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011782:Quadriplegia / Q000534:rehabilitation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014910:Wheelchairs; D014922:Wisconsin