What is School Anxiety / Phobia

When your child won't — or can't — go to school

What is School Anxiety / Phobia

School avoidance is one of the most stressful and confusing situations a family can face. If your child is refusing to go to school, or making every morning a battle, you are not alone — and there are real answers.

Since the Covid 19 pandemic the number of students across the country demonstrating school avoidance behaviors has ballooned. Currently the National Institutes of Health say as many as 28% of children experience some form of school avoidance behaviors. If your child is struggling, you are not alone.

Causes and Function of School Avoidance Behavior:

Like any behavior, school avoidance has many causes and each child needs to be assessed as an individual. Some children have anxiety about academic performance at school. Who can't remember our own butterflies when asked to solve a problem on the board. A child who doesn't feel successful or who sees anything less than 100% as failure, will wake up every morning with dread about what might happen today. A child who struggles with peer interactions, likewise, will struggle to feel safe, emotionally or physically. Other children are afraid to leave their parent, sibling, pet, or otherwise are afraid to leave the house. None of these children are lazy, none of these children are being oppositional, they are telling us that they don't have the skills to meet their needs, and they are asking for our help.

School Districts' Response when Student Struggle to Attend School

School Districts' Response to absenteeism is to call the parent to complain about the attendance, and often escalate to sending a series of letters with an increasing threatening tone. They even have a threatening word, "Truancy" that they label the child with. Of course this doesn't help the child fill the unmet need that is driving the school avoidance in the first place, and further damages the relationship between the family and the school. What they do successfully do, is to heap shame and blame on already concerned parents and absolve the school system from any responsibility for the problem. In some cases the school system will drop the student from enrollment in order to preserve their attendance rates for state reporting purposes.

A Functional Response to Supporting Students who Avoid School

First, we must asses the situation to identify why the student is struggling to attend. We determine the function or functions of the school avoidance based on a broad base of information.

• Student Interview

• Parent Interview

• School Staff Interview

• Existing Reports such as IEP evaluations, historical test scores, and other school records

• Any medical information that may be appropriate

• School Refusal Assessment Scale for Children

After determining the function of the school avoidance behavior we work with the parents and the school to find better ways for the child to meet their needs so that we can remove any barriers to success.

Can't I just take away his phone? Yes and No. Schools often suggest some version of this. Phones and other electronics are highly reinforcing for young people, but taking things away without looking at the function can actually make the problem worse. For instance a child who refuses school because he is afraid to be away from his parent will be even more cut off if we take away the phone, and the only way for him to feel safe would be to not go to school at all. Systems that allow a student to earn screen time by attending school work much better. An example would be a student can earn 10 minutes of his favorite game system for every hour he attends school. It is critical that this is not an all or nothing response. Going to school late should be rewarded, as it is better than staying home all day.

In some cases there are underlying medical issues that impact school avoidance behavior. Anxiety and Attention Deficit Disorder are common factors that may be contributing to the intensity of the problem. If these are suspected, talking to your child's doctor or specialist may provide some additional options to support the child. A note on medication therapy. Medication is not a magic bullet and is not right for every child. There can be significant side effects, and if not taken consistently some medications can even be dangerous. This is a conversation between the parents, the child and the medical doctor, and no-one else.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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