The number of days of school a child misses during the year is another measure of the impact of a child’s condition on his or her ability to function as other children do. In general, the average child misses 3 days of school due to acute conditions.1 In comparison, among school-aged CSHCN, the average is 7 school days (due to both chronic and acute conditions). However, this average is affected by a relatively small group of children who miss many school days: approximately 14 percent of CSHCN miss 11 or more school days, while just over half miss 3 or fewer days.
Children whose conditions have a greater impact on their activities were more likely to miss 11 or more days of school than children whose conditions have a lesser impact. More than one quarter of children whose conditions affect their activities usually, always, or a great deal missed at least 11 school days, compared to 5 percent of children whose daily activities are never affected by their conditions.
1 Benson V, Marano MA. Current estimates from the National Health Interview Survey. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital and Health Statistics, 10(199), 1998.
