Definition: Estimated percentage of children ages 0-17 with special health care needs (CSHCN) who in the previous 12 months needed referrals to see doctors or receive services, by difficulty getting needed referrals (e.g., in 2024, among California CSHCN who needed referrals in the previous year, 44.4% had difficulties getting or were not able to get the referrals they needed).
Data Source: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Survey of Children's Health (Nov. 2025).
Footnote: Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. These estimates are based on a survey of the population and are subject to both sampling and nonsampling error. The annotation [!] indicates that the margin of error for the estimate is greater than 5 percentage points but less than 10 percentage points. For more information, see https://www.childhealthdata.org/learn-about-the-nsch/NSCH.
