Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) are defined as those who have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and who also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. On kidsdata.org, indicators related to access to services for CSHCN include:

• Access to a usual source of health care
• Access to a variety of services, including medical, mental, and dental care, as well as community- and school-based services, early intervention, special education, and transition services to adulthood

Most of these measures come from the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs or the National Survey of Children's Health, which are conducted through telephone interviews with parents. Depending on the indicator, data are available for California, the U.S., and/or all states other than California (including the District of Columbia). School staff reports on the extent to which their school provides services for students with disabilities or other special needs come from the California School Staff Survey and are available for school districts, counties, and California overall.

More than 1 million California children and youth have a need for health care services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. Their ongoing health problems—physical, behavioral, or developmental—can affect their ability to function and participate in important educational and social activities. In some cases their health problems can shorten their lives (1). Medical care for children with special health care needs (CSHCN) is often complicated by the co-occurrence of social, emotional, and academic problems (1, 2). Because of the higher caregiving burdens, families of CSHCN tend to experience more stress and difficulties with employment and finances than other families (1, 2).

CSHCN account for more than 40% of all health care costs among children nationwide, despite making up only about 16% of the U.S. child population (1). Though advances in medical care have extended and improved the lives of millions of children, obtaining timely, appropriate, and affordable care remains a problem for many families. More than four in five CSHCN do not receive one or more basic aspects of quality health care, in California and nationally (1).

In 2009-10, 26% of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) in California had unmet medical care needs and 35% had difficulty accessing community-based services. In addition, 34% of these children in California had difficulty getting needed referrals to specialty care, which was significantly higher than the average for other states (22%).* However, the vast majority of California's CSHCN had a preventive medical visit in the past year (88%) and a usual source of health care (89%) in 2009-10. Regarding mental health care, almost 40% of CSHCN in California did not receive needed mental health services, according to 2011-12 data.

CSHCN with more complex health needs or who are low income, of color, or publicly insured are more likely than other children to have challenges accessing quality health care. For example, just 30% of youth with more complex special health care needs in California received the services needed to support their transition to the adult health care system, compared to 49% of youth with less complex health needs in 2009-10.

Children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN), like all young people, need ready access to appropriate medical care, educational opportunities, and, sometimes, social services. CYSHCN, especially those with more complex conditions, may face challenges in obtaining timely access to pediatric subspecialty care and receiving comprehensive, coordinated, high quality health care (1, 2). They also may experience difficulties participating in school and recreational activities (1, 3). Their families, too, often have to manage economic, social, and personal burdens in excess of families without CYSHCN (1, 3).

Policies and programs to promote the health and well-being of CYSHCN and their families should address:

• Comprehensive and consistent health care coverage: CYSHCN need comprehensive health insurance that provides adequate medical and mental health coverage, including access to specialty care providers (1, 4, 5). These children also need consistent coverage, without gaps that can cause delays or problems receiving critical services. Appropriate reimbursement is critical to maintaining an adequate provider network, as well (4, 5).
• High-quality, well-coordinated, and consistent services: CYSHCN benefit from evidence-based health care services provided in the context of a “medical home” that assures high quality, well-coordinated care (1, 2, 4).
• Family-centered care: Families are the most central and enduring influence in children’s lives, and most of children’s care depends on their families carrying out agreed-upon management plans. Families’ values, beliefs, goals, and priorities should help guide care plans, and families should be included as partners in all health care decision-making (1, 3, 4).
• Early and continuous screening: Systematic screenings for special health care needs beginning early in a child’s life have the potential to reduce long-term consequences of some chronic conditions. Such screenings help identify problems early and can provide an opportunity to assess the needs and strengths of families, as part of providing tailored and family-centered care (3, 4).
• Inclusion: Providing CYSHCN with opportunities for inclusion with other children in academic, social, and recreational settings is critical to their development and can maximize achievement and quality of life (6).
• Support for adulthood transition: As CYSHCN age, they need support from their health care, educational, and social service systems to successfully transition to adulthood. For example, they may need assistance to move from school to work or post-secondary education, from pediatric care to adult health care, and/or from family dependency to self-sufficiency (1, 4).
• Financing of care: Families of CYSHCN must navigate a complicated web of service systems with dueling eligibility criteria and confusing payment policies. This can result in delayed or denied services for children and financial hardship for families. State policy must work toward a unified, efficient, and comprehensive payment system for health care and developmental services, as well as ensuring adequate funding for public systems serving CYSHCN (1, 2, 4, 7).