Chronically Ill children in school

Abstract

Attention to the specific educational needs of chronically ill children is a relatively recent development in American education, beginning in a limited fashion at the turn of the century. Prior to that time, high mortality rates, societal attitudes towards the chronically ill or delicate child, and the view of public schooling as a privilege rather than a right, kept all but the mildly impaired out of the public system. Reversals in these trendsadvances in medical science that have improved survival rates for some conditions, increasing public acceptance of people who are different and disabled, and legislation establishing education as an entitlement for all children-have allowed for the entrance of many chronically ill children into mainstream education.