To investigate education system models for maintaining school connection for seriously sick children

The Churchill Fellowship enabled Megan to showcase approaches used in Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and two provinces of Canada to support education, social and emotional connection for sick kids. Her findings are an excellent resource for her advocacy work in the Australian context and will inform governments, educators, medical staff, and organisations involved in the care of sick kids. While the challenge of educating sick kids produced consistent themes across countries, including Australia, discoveries included critical solutions that Australia is missing. At the same time, there was wide variability within and between countries in applying these solutions. We can now take our vision from a country that does this best. In this country exists: joint education-health legislation that is customised for sick students, they are counted and their right to an education on equal terms to their peers is upheld responsibility is owned by the regular school for education services informed by joint policy (including for digital connection) dedicated to sick students joint education-health benchmarks for education services for sick students where personnel have specific competencies and standards that are regulated jointly led processes and procedures to manage, administer, and fund a systemised service at school/hospital/home, matched with staff training joint tracking of absence and risk, with absences managed and kids and families engaged, supported and connected throughout the whole education journey. Which country? This could be Australia by 2020. Australia can innovate on continuous school connection for students with serious illness. We don’t have to lag or iterate. We can advance on best practice from overseas, and we can leap. In 2015, MissingSchool took this problem and drove it on to a national agenda for the first time, earning the Prime Minister’s and Australia-wide media attention. MissingSchool initiated an Australian-first pilot for real-time digital connection for sick kids to their classrooms. The funding for this Australian pilot was received from St. George Foundation. Megan will press her Churchill Fellowship findings through Australian schools, children’s illness groups, conferences and fora, information to parents/carers, educators, and health practitioners, government submissions, the media, online platforms, professional associations, reference groups, research organisations, social media, members of parliament, and Australian education and health departments and ministries. The connections she made overseas begins a global movement to meet this challenge. The highlight of her discoveries was to find so many people deeply and passionately committed to keeping seriously sick kids educated and connected to their schools.