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Factors Promoting or Potentially Impeding School Success: Disparities and State Variations for Children with Special Health Care Needs

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Abstract

School success predicts many pathways for health and well-being across the life span. Factors promoting or potentially impeding school success are critical to understand for all children and for children with special health care needs (CSHCN), whose life course trajectories are already impacted by their chronic health problems. The 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health was used (1) to estimate national and state prevalence and within and across states disparities in factors promoting school success (engagement, participation, safety) or potentially impeding success (missing school, grade repetition, school identified problems) for all children and CSHCN and (2) to evaluate associations with CSHCN service need complexity and presence of emotional, behavioral or developmental problems (EBD) as well as with school case management policies in states. Among school age children, 60 % experienced all three factors promoting school success (49.3–73.8 % across states), dropping to 51.3 % for CSHCN (39.4–64.7 % across states) and to 36.2 % for the 40 % of all CSHCN who have both more complex service needs and EBD. CSHCN were more likely to experience factors potentially impeding school success. After accounting for child factors, CSHCN living in states requiring case management in schools for children with disabilities were less likely to experience grade repetition (OR 0.65). Within-state disparities between non-CSHCN and CSHCN varied across states. Threats to school success for US children are pervasive and are especially pronounced for CSHCN with more complex needs and EBD. Findings support broad, non-condition specific efforts to promote school success for CSHCN and consideration of state school policies, such as case management.

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Abbreviations

NSCH:

National Survey of Children’s Health

CSHCN:

Children with special health care needs

EBD:

Emotional, behavioral or developmental problem

AOR:

Adjusted odds ratio

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Acknowledgments

This study was partly supported by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau under Cooperative Agreement 1-US9-MC06980-01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, 707 SW Gaines Avenue, CDRC-P, Portland, OR, 97239, USA

    Christina Bethell

  2. Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA

    Christina Bethell, Scott Stumbo & Narangerel Gombojav

  3. Department of Pediatrics, The Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Christopher B. Forrest

  4. Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Christopher B. Forrest

  5. Cinncinati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Adam Carle

  6. James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Adam Carle

  7. Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Charles E. Irwin

Authors
  1. Christina Bethell
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  2. Christopher B. Forrest
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  3. Scott Stumbo
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  4. Narangerel Gombojav
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  5. Adam Carle
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  6. Charles E. Irwin
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Correspondence to Christina Bethell.

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Bethell, C., Forrest, C.B., Stumbo, S. et al. Factors Promoting or Potentially Impeding School Success: Disparities and State Variations for Children with Special Health Care Needs. Matern Child Health J 16 (Suppl 1), 35–43 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-0993-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-0993-z

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