Most families never think about their student's dorm building until something feels wrong — and by then, it's surprisingly hard to find clear information. Lawsuits involving campus housing are often settled quietly, with records sealed. Maintenance histories can be incomplete or hard to access. Universities are frequently slow to test, slow to acknowledge a problem, or unwilling to do either. And students are often not diagnosed with anything until well after they've already left the housing in question — which means the window to document what actually happened has usually already started closing.

There isn't a regulatory body that oversees dorm living conditions the way OSHA oversees a workplace. Parents are often left to figure out, on their own and in real time, what to pay attention to, what to save, and who to call. We built Behind the Dorm Walls to close that gap — not with legal or medical advice, but with practical, levelheaded resources for the part every family has to do themselves: noticing, documenting, and asking better questions.