What is school refusal?
Sometimes children and adolescents have difficulty attending school on a regular basis. When absences are reasonable (e.g., due to illness), missing school is appropriate. When young people fail to attend school for other reasons, the term “school refusal” is used to describethese occasions. School refusal includes the following circumstances:1 • Child or adolescent refuses to attend school, which may lead to prolonged or repeated absences • Child or adolescent usually does not try to hide absences from parents (i.e., remaining at home during school hours, rather than skipping school with friends) • Child or adolescent becomes upset (e.g., excessive anxiety or sadness, temper tantrums, unexplained physical symptoms) about having to attend school • Caregivers try (or have tried) to force the child or adolescent to attend school School refusal can come on suddenly or escalate gradually. Young people can exhibit a number of behaviors when confronted with the requirement to attend school w
