The population of CSHCN includes children with a wide range of conditions with varying levels of impact and requiring a variety of services. This section describes the types of special needs these children have and how they affect their daily lives.
Types of special health care needs are described in three ways. First, we discuss the consequences of children’s conditions: that is, the types of services or treatments that children require or the effect of the condition on the child’s functional abilities. Next, we group these functional impacts into three major categories and show where children’s needs fall among these groups. Finally, we present information about some of the health conditions found among CSHCN.
In addition, this section discusses the impact of children’s conditions on their ability to do the things that most children of the same age do. This indicator presents a general measure of the magnitude of the challenges that CSHCN experience in their daily lives.
The survey also measured one specific effect of chronic conditions that is important to all children of school age: the number of school days missed due to both chronic and acute conditions during the year. We also report on the percentage of CSHCN who participate in programs to support their development and education.