It’s official. As we turn our calendars to May, schools are beginning to reopen and will reopen fully in September 2021. Many students will be excited about returning. However, students who have struggled with the social and emotional issues that cause school refusal behavior (SRB) will have very different feelings about returning to the classroom. The partial reopening over the next two months provides us with an excellent opportunity to begin the work of getting students with SRB back to school.
The last year has provided students with SRB with a sanctioned reason to stay home. Their parents have also had a break from the everyday struggles of dealing with this problematic behavior. For many students, this has been a relief. But for others, the refusal behavior continued through failing to attend online classes regularly, not turning on their camera, and/or not doing their work.
These students avoid what makes them uncomfortable. And while avoidance may feel good in the short-term, it is not an effective long-term strategy. Students with SRB and their parents may delude themselves by thinking that things will get better without intervention, and that the student will simply return to school. In reality, that rarely happens.
When the whole world had to scramble to adjust to virtual learning, schools faced a plethora of complications and issues to address. With so many competing priorities, this version of school refusal has been overlooked, ignored, and simply not addressed by many schools.
As educators, we have to get ahead of this issue before classrooms reopen. Now is the time to identify students who are manifesting SRB and develop a reintegration plan.
With many schools adopting a hybrid learning schedule, there is an opportunity to offer a lower-stress reintegration plan for students.
Because schools are less crowded and students are still not required to attend in person every day, case managers and counselors can develop creative plans. They can bring students in for a partial day, and have them work in spaces where they feel safer, while still attending virtually and slowly transitioning into the classroom.
The priority is to get school refusal students into the building and to start to form relationships with people in the school, while also reducing their normal stress reactions.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are certainly options to setting up a reentry that can help struggling students to connect to school.
Start by identifying students who are struggling with attending school virtually and/or under staggered schedules. These students may prove the most difficult to reintegrate, since they are the most disconnected.
You may also want to identify students who have a history of school refusal behavior, yet they are engaged in virtual learning.
Meet with the student and parents to assess the student’s and parents’ motivation to address reintegration.
You might find that some students are not stable or functioning at a healthy emotional level due to depression or other psychiatric problems. In that case, a referral for a higher level of care such as an intensive outpatient program, hospital, or psychiatric evaluation may be warranted before discussing or attempting reintegration.
If the family and the student are ready to discuss a plan, you need to get the student and parent to verbally commit to a contract or plan for attendance. Parents must also commit to their responsibilities in helping their student to attend school (such as get the student up, showered, dressed and to school in the morning). Without those commitments from students and parents, there is only so much school personnel can do to get the student back to the classroom.
While we have faced some challenging times over the past year, there are still many ahead. Helping our more anxious students reintegrate into school will certainly be one of those challenges. Using this time before classrooms fully reopen to make proactive plans is a crucial first step in helping these students to return to school successfully.