School Refusal Series Part 2: What Parents Can Do

In this episode, Chris Leonard shares advice for parents to help their school-refusing child get back to school. Chris and his guest also touch on how schools can partner with parents to form a team to help a student get back on track.

This time, Chris gets interviewed by his guest, Jayne Demsky. Jayne is a parent who once faced her own son’s school avoidance and became an advocate for families dealing with this challenging issue. She founded School Refusal Hope in 2014 and recently launched her new website, schoolavoidance.org, to provide guidance and support for families.

Jayne also serves on the Public Policy Committee for the New Jersey state office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and is a NAMI Smarts Advocacy trainer, where she presents workshops on mental health advocacy. 

Highlights include:

• What to do (and what NOT to do) when a child won’t get up for school
• Tips and tools for uncovering the root of the problem
• Advice about setting consequences, contracts, and homeschooling
• When to seek out more support, and what to do when the student refuses help 
• Steps schools can take to bring students back into the building, and how they can use data to prevent school refusal