We will test the hypothesis that children who are excluded from school are more likely to have psychiatric disorders, and investigate the relationship between psychiatric disorders, special educational needs and school exclusion.

Our project would be a nested case-control study. We plan to study all those children with psychiatric disorder at age 7, 13 and 15, stratified by whether the teachers and education records indicate the child had special educational needs identified within the school, in comparison with children who are not classifed as having a psychiatric disorder.

Outcomes will be fixed term or permanent exclusion from school reported at age 8 yr 7m and 16 yr, and any associations will be adjusted by socio-demographic variables and family adversity.