ABSTRACT
Schools are frequently confronted with children who complain of stomachaches and ask to leave school early. Many of these children return to school after a brief illness and have no further complaints. Others, however, complain of stomachaches repeatedly for months on end and may miss a great deal of school. Dealing with these students creates a dilemma-how can schools be responsive to the children’s illness, yet ensure that their educational needs are met? The goals of this chapter are to review the empirical literature on children with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) and to provide guidelines for helping these children in the school setting.
