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15 year old disengaged from school

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15 year old disengaged from school

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Sunshine_85

15 year old disengaged from school

My Son is 15 years old and hasn’t been to High School this whole year. He won’t talk to anyone outside of our household. I even had two support workers come to the home and he just sat there and didn’t even engage in the chat. We enrolled him into a trade school and he went for 3 weeks and then said he didn’t want to do it anymore and has lost all motivation with looking for work
My 13 year old son is also following his lead now with not attending school! Any advice would be appreciated I don’t know where to go from here
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Chloe-RO

Re: 15 year old disengaged from school

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Hi @Sunshine_85 ,

 

Thank you for sharing what has been going on for you at home. It must be so disheartening to watch your children stay home instead of going to school. Unfortunately, it seems that school refusal or school can't is on rise. There are many parents in the same situation. It sounds like you have done what you can to support your 15 year old such as enrolling him into trade school.

 

For some students, once they get into a habit of not going to school, they find it difficult to go back and face their peers. They would've also missed out on a lot of work which means they would find going back quite overwhelming. Have you asked your boys why they don't want to go to school? What would happen if they have a fresh start in a new school?

 

Also, have you been in touch with the school to talk about your children's school can't? They may look at a re-engagement program for them such as getting them onsite to speak to a counsellor/wellbeing team, and slowly integrating them back into class - starting with a few hours at a time? These are all options schools are open to. But I hear your older one won't speak to anyone... would your younger one talk to someone?

 

Here are some articles on school refusal that you might like to have a read through. ReachOut also have a free service that provides 1:1 parent coaching that you may want to check out as well. You can find more info here.

 

As difficult as things are for you right now, it is important you have supports for yourself. Self-care is so important at this time.