Levelling Education Outcomes for Students With Medical and Mental Health Needs

Abstract

Students' educational and behavioural outcomes can be adversely impacted by the unique challenges posed by chronic health conditions. As some children and adolescents may live with these challenges throughout their education, hospital-based educators play a crucial role in reducing the impacts of health conditions on educational outcomes. This study assessed the extent to which the support provided by the School of Special Educational Needs: Medical and Mental Health (SSEN:MMH, Western Australia) attenuated the negative association between higher absences and lower student outcomes. Administrative education records relating to absences, student behaviour, achievement outcomes, and level of support provided by the SSEN:MMH were used to assess the study questions. Regression models revealed no significant association between higher levels of teaching support and student outcomes after controlling for baseline characteristics. However, the negative association between higher absences and lower academic achievement was lower among students receiving higher levels of liaison. Additional analysis highlighted challenges in evaluating student outcomes, including the finding that most students receiving support missed at least two weeks of school over a year but received less than the equivalent of two days of teaching support, suggesting that the available measures were not sensitive to the level of teaching support provided. Together, the findings of this study suggest that liaison services informing schools about the educational needs of students are an important tool for supporting students academically and that the process of supporting students with chronic health conditions is not a simple task given the varying complexity of student needs and behaviours.

Maintaining Schooling for Children With Cancer During and Post Treatment: Parents’ Perspectives of a Theory-Based Program

“…The back-to-school transition and schooling at home have been identified as phases associated with increased stress (McLoone et al, 2011;Wakefield et al, 2009), and again suggests that more support for families and communication across systems is necessary. This finding is also consistent with a recent Australian study showing that most students with chronic health conditions missed more school time than the support service could respond to in terms of making up for lost learning, with many students missing over 40 days of school in a year but receiving teaching support equivalent to less than 2 days of school (Cave et al, 2020).…”

“…These parents were motivated to participate and may have placed greater focus on education. Thus, recent findings showed that high-achieving students with chronic health conditions were more likely to opt into receiving support from special education support services ( Cave et al, 2020 ). Experiences also pertain largely to the early schooling years.…”

Fast-tracking Healthcare Services for Students through the Design of a Hospital Information System

“…Students with medical conditions have the right to the most comprehensive education possible, which includes regular attendance, engagement in all social and broader areas of school life, and participation in courses whenever possible. Because healthy students are better when it comes to learning, an increase in student engagement, reaching of academic potentials and the closing of achievement gaps are attained when positive environments are instituted to ensure healthy and well-prepared students (Cave et al, 2020).…”