Purpose School reintegration following children’s traumatic brain injury (TBI) is still poorly understood from families’ perspectives. We aimed to understand how both unique and common experiences during children’s school reintegration were explained by parents to influence the family. Methods Data came from an investigation using descriptive phenomenology (2005–2007) to understand parents’ experiences in the first 5 years following children’s moderate to severe TBI. Parents (N = 42 from 37 families in the United States) participated in two 90-minute interviews (first M = 15 months; second M = 27 months). Two investigators independently coded parents’ discussions of school reintegration using content analysis to understand the unique and common factors that parents perceived affected the family. Results Parents’ school negotiation themes included: 1) legal versus moral basis for helping the child; 2) inappropriate state and local services that did not consider needs specific to TBI; and, 3) involvement in planning, implementing, and evaluating the child’s education plan. Parents perceived that coordinated and collaboration leadership with school personnel lessened families’ workload. Families who home-schooled had unique challenges. Conclusions School reintegration can add to family workload by changing roles and relationships, and by adding to parents’ perceived stress in managing of the child’s condition.

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