Current estimates indicate that 18% of all children have a chronic illness, and 65% suffer an illness severe enough to interfere with normal school activities (Shaw & McCabe, 2008). As a medical condition of extended duration that creates impairment in adaptive behaviour and socially defined roles, chronic illness may seriously limit the child’s ability to focus on academics. In fact, “children and adolescents with chronic illness experience more academic difficulty than their healthy peers” (Thies, 1999: 393). In the school setting, parents and teachers report that children have a number of additional difficulties including attending school regularly, meeting curriculum requirements, and adjusting to the social demands of school (Menke, 1987; Sexson & Madan-Swain, 1995). In addition, these students often have lower scholastic expectations placed on them by teachers and parents. Recent research suggest also that school personnel may not be fully aware of the educational needs of chronically ill students (Brook & Galili, 2001; Murkherjee et al, 2000 in Clay et al, 2004) placing chronically ill students at further risk for academic and social difficulties.

This paper explores the role of schools in Portugal as contexts that might work together with families and health care providers to promote adaptation to chronic illness in children and adolescents, based on a qualitative methodology. In order to understand how the chronic illness life experience can interfere in the academic quality of children and adolescents, this research focus on the main facilitating and inhibiting factors, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with teachers and parents. As Telford and colleagues stress “rather than interpreting behaviour as denial and promoting acceptance as a desirable end point, we suggest actively listening to the stories people tell” (2006: 463), and therefore these research methods should allow the description of the needs and resources of children and adolescents with chronic illness, as well as the strategies schools and teachers use facilitate their integration in the academic context.

We hope that the results will enable a better understanding of the needs and resources of children and families with chronic illness regarding the school context that might foster their actual inclusion and the promotion of academic performance. Additionally, we hope that our emphasis on the empowerment and rights of these children and their families will encourage a vision of this issue as a challenge (rather than a limitation) to the quality of life within the school context.