title: Special Health Care Needs Across the School and Family Contexts: Implications for Service Utilization.
abstract: A fifth of children enter school with special health care needs (SHCN), many of whom have difficulties that are milder or not yet formally diagnosed (emerging SHCN). This study aimed to investigate how differing perceptions of children's emerging SHCN across the family and school contexts relates to service utilization.
  
  
  
  Sample: The nationally representative birth cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which includes parent reports on the abbreviated Children with Special Health Care Needs Screener. For a subsample of 2459 children teachers also completed the Australian Early Development Census, a measure of early childhood development at school entry that includes SHCN.
  
  
  
  Logistic regression analyses were conducted adjusting for severity of condition, gender, language background, and disadvantage.
  
  
  
  Overall 24.1% of children were identified by their parent and/or teacher as experiencing emerging SHCN. Compared with those with consistent reports, children with parent-only identified needs had lower odds of accessing school services (odds ratio [OR], 0.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10-0.81). Similarly, children with parent-only (OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.20-0.75) and teacher-only (OR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.14-0.46) identified needs had significantly lower odds of accessing services in the community.
  
  
  
  When parent and teacher perceptions of children's emerging SHCN were inconsistent, service use was lower at school and in the community. Further efforts are needed by health and education providers to ensure that common understandings about a child's needs at school are established early in children's educational careers.
authors.affiliation: Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.affiliation: De Bascule, Vrije University Medical Centre, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Duivendracht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rosema
authors.affiliation: Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quach
authors.affiliation: Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kvalsvig
authors.affiliation: Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia. Electronic address: Sharon.goldfeld@rch.org.au.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldfeld
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005178:Faculty / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012572:School Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012574:Schools
keywords: chronic health condition; disability; emerging special health care needs; home school partnerships; school functioning; special health care needs