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Trouble with my son's french homework!

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By the way - I think it means "what does he have?"
No, that would be "Qu'est-ce qu'il a ?".

"Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ?" has a lot of possible translations, depending on the context. Here are probably the most frequent ones:
What it is?
What is going on?

Note: "il y a" means "there is"
Another common interpretation would be "What's up?", "What's the matter?", "What's wrong?"

In informal speech, it's usually shortened to Qu'est-ce qu'y a?
"est-ce que" translates directly as "is it that", but obviously the natives don't really use it the way we would. "Il y a" translates as "there is" so the direct translation of "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a?" is "What is it that there is?" but of course with native speakers it wouldn't sound that awkward and can mean different things like "What's up?" or "What is there?"
qu'est-ce qu'il y a = what's the matter
Qu'est-ce qu'elle a = whats up with her ........ so forth .
Wrong, it means what is there?
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a means what is there as in... say your mom said "What is there outside?" something along those lines

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