School performance

Parents were asked several questions regarding their child's education, including questions about their child's engagement in school, their performance in school, and their expected school advancement. A series of four questions were used to evaluate the degree to which school-age children in Iowa were engaged in school: 1) how much the child cared about doing well, 2) how much they needed to be forced to complete homework, 3) whether they did just enough homework to get by, and 4) if they completed homework on time. CSHCN were much more likely to be identified as having a 'low'engagement in school (29% vs 10%) and much less likely to be considered 'highly' engaged in school (28% vs 44%). School performance compared to other children in their child's grade was rated either excellent or very good for half of CSHCN. The performance of almost three quarters of children without special needs was rated as excellent or very good. CSHCN were also much more likely to have their school performance rated as fair or poor (22% vs 7%). While the vast majority of all children's parents (87%) would like to see their child attend a 4-year college, almost one-quarter of the parents of CSHCN thought their child would receive a two-year degree or less compared to 11 percent of other children.