the post-covid rise in school avoidance: what the data actually shows
Before my daughter stopped going to school, I had a vague sense that this kind of thing happened to some kids, somewhere, occasionally. I did not have any sense that it was happening at a scale significant enough to have its own research literature, its own clinical terminology, or its own entry in a BMJ journal article with the phrase "perfect storm" in the title.
the (not so) hidden connection between neurodivergence and school avoidance in girls
I went looking for something else entirely and found the number that stopped me cold: in one large study of kids experiencing significant school distress, 92% were neurodivergent. If your daughter is struggling to get to school and neurodivergence hasn't come up yet, this might be the post that finally makes the pattern make sense.
what if therapy isn't helping? (and the thing nobody in the system will say out loud)
What if the constant focus on the anxiety — the appointments, the check-ins, the careful monitoring, the conversations about school and how school is going and what we're going to do about school — is making things worse rather than better? It turns out there is research on this. More than I expected.
how to actually find a therapist for your school-avoidant teenager (the part nobody tells you)
Finding a therapist who takes your insurance and has availability and works with teenagers and comes recommended by someone who isn't just a name on a list is its own entire experience. Here's the practical version — the one I wish I'd had when I started.
if your child is finishing the year online: what to think about, and how to approach september without catastrophising
Some students are finishing this school year online. Not because they chose to, but because it was the option that allowed them to finish at all. On what to think about now, how to use the summer well, and how to approach September without catastrophising.
end of year burnout in school-avoidant teenagers: what it actually is and why anxious kids hit it harder
The school year has about six weeks left. And if your daughter is struggling more than usual right now — more withdrawn, more exhausted, more resistant — you are not imagining it. Here's what academic burnout actually is, and why anxious teenagers hit it harder than their peers.
how to work with your school when your child can't attend: what parents actually need to know
At some point in most school avoidance journeys, the relationship with the school becomes its own problem. Here's what rights you actually have, what to ask for, and how to have better conversations with the people who hold a lot of power over your daughter's education.
how anxiety shows up in the body — and why your daughter's stomach ache is real
The stomach ache arrives at 7am, right on schedule. It disappears by mid-morning on a day she stays home. The symptoms are real — here's the neuroscience of why, and why it matters for how you respond.
what does "emotionally based school avoidance" actually mean?
EBSA — emotionally based school avoidance — is a term you may have started seeing everywhere. Here's what it actually means, why it replaced older terms that are still in common use, and why the framework matters for your daughter specifically.
7 warning signs your daughter may be heading toward school avoidance
Most parents don't see it coming. Here are the seven early warning signs of school avoidance — and why they're easy to miss until the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
if you're in the middle of it — the slow mornings, the sunday evenings, the conversations with the school that don't go the way you needed them to —
this is for you.
get a note in your inbox each week. no advice you haven't already tried. just a parent who's in it too, and the occasional thing that's actually helped.