Children’s Reentry to School After Psychiatric Hospitalization: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

School reentry after inpatient psychiatric hospitalization requires careful coordination between multiple team members to ensure stability across transitions, given documented negative academic and socioemotional impacts in the post-discharge period. Existing investigations are limited by the fact that no articles examine the perspectives of multiple participant types simultaneously. We conducted a qualitative study of multiple children transitioning out of psychiatric hospitalization and their adult reentry team members, utilizing thematic analysis informed by grounded theory. Across 16 semi-structured interviews, we analyzed perspectives from 17 participants: four children, four parents, five school staff, and four hospital staff. We identified four key themes informing an overarching theory: 1) Centering the socioemotional role of school; 2) Clarifying what constitutes good communication; 3) Reconciling multiple sources of authority; and 4) Navigating limitations with creativity. Together, these themes converge into two new theoretical concepts. First, stereovision represents the synthesis of multiple “lines of sight,” which cross to create a densely interactional system. Second, patchworking represents the cobbling together of case-by-case solutions to develop an adequate support plan in the face of multiple limitations or barriers. In conclusion, by incorporating the above four thematic findings into a novel theoretical framework, we argue that when navigating school reentry after psychiatric hospitalization, children and adults must use stereovision and patchworking to create a strong, flexible support fabric. These reflections increase representation of child and adult team member voices in the literature and inform future school–hospital–family partnerships for school reentry after psychiatric hospitalization.