Kristen McNeely joins me for an informative discussion about the challenging topic of School Refusal and Chronic Absenteeism.

If you are in any way connected to a school community, you've probably heard about this difficult and growing problem. As we discuss in this episode, school refusal is an ever-growing concern, and it manifests itself in numerous ways.

Kristen is both a BCBA and a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist in California, and she spends nearly all of her time working with parents who have children who engage in school refusal.

In this episode, we cover:

• The distinction between the terms Chronic Absenteeism and School Refusal.
• How School Refusal can be thought of as a continuum of attendance patterns.
• The role of anxiety in these response patterns.
• Assessing the function of School Refusal behaviors.
• Helping parents intervene with School Refusal.
• The importance of wrap around supports for severe cases.
• How School Refusal can turn into what's known as Failure to Launch.

You're going to want to listen all the way through to the end because she closes the show not only some awesome advice for the newly minted, but a poignant personal story.

Resources mentioned in this podcast:

• The School Avoidance Alliance.
• Kearney and Silverman (2010). Measuring the Function of School Refusal Behavior: The School Refusal Assessment Scale.
• SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions).
• Episode 58 of ABA Inside Track (Interview with Christopher Kearney).
• Kristen's website.
• Kristen's Instagram.

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