services providing treatment for the child will be essential to ensure that the child achieves maximum progress and also that the child is not unnecessarily excluded from any part of the curriculum or school activity because of anxiety about his or her care and treatment.  See also the Circular: 'The Education of Sick Children'.


The child's learning difficulty

3:92. The LEA should seek clear recorded evidence of both the child's academic attainment and the nature of his or her medical condition, asking, for example, whether:

i. there is a significant discrepancy between the child's attainment, as measured by    National Curriculum assessments and tests, and teachers' own recorded assessments of a child's classroom work, including any portfolio of the child's work, and the attainment of the majority of children of his or her age

ii. there is a significant discrepancy between the expectations of the child as assessed by the child's teachers, parents and external specialists who have closely observed the child, supported, as appropriate, by the results of standardised tests of cognitive ability, and the child's attainment as measured by National Curriculum assessments and tests

iii. there is clear recorded evidence that the child's medical condition significantly impedes or disrupts his or her access to the curriculum, ability to take part in particular classroom activities or participation in aspects of school life

iv. there is clear substantiated evidence, based on specific examples, that the child's  medical condition has given rise to emotional or behavioural difficulties

v.        there is evidence of significant and recurrent absences from school.


The child's special educational provision

3:93. In the light of evidence about the child's academic attainment and medical condition, the LEA should consider the action taken by the school and, in particular, should ask whether:

i. the school has, with the parents' consent, notified and sought the assistance of the school doctor, the child's general practitioner or any specialist child health service, as appropriate

ii. all staff have been fully informed of the child's medical condition and a consistent approach to managing the child's education has been taken across the school

iii. the school has sought the views of, and involved, the child's parents at each stage

iv. the school has sought the cooperation of those within the local education authority responsible for the education of children who are at home and, as appropriate, in hospital, as a result of illness.


3:94. Where the balance of the evidence presented to and assessed by the LEA suggests that the child's learning difficulties and/or disabilities:
- are significant and/or complex