Hello @compassion I have really been given a lifeline because she is actually enrolled in a school 3 hours from Perth and she is engaged and loving it so far, I have received compliments on her attitude and manners - but its only early days.  She is staying with friends of the family who are going to look after her for the rest of term 4 and there is nothing else to do down there but to go to school and play sport. She was trying to go back to school but her friends were at the station texting her to meet them, the school did nothing to help me keep her there and we had many discussions about her doing art at lunch for which they simply got her to colour in - which surprise surprise did not keep her at school and away from the station. After she came home, I pretty much had to let her do what she wanted because I was afraid that she would simply leave again.  I had booked her into counselling and I had a life coach also to try and get her back on track. I found the parenting coarse really valuable with "ReachOut", I could simply work through small scenarios with my daughter and try and get some rules back into place with consequences.  They were working but it was taking a long time and her school life was slipping away but they were working. My daughter would turn off her phone and then come home when she wanted, and sometimes would just text me to say she was not coming home.  It was all of my nightmares... Anyway, she is now in school and she has really turned around - but it was getting her away from her friends who had all the influence that was the hardest to do and it was never going to happen while she was at home and they had access to her. Good luck - there is small comfort in knowing that you are not the only one and that there are lots of parents out there in similar situations just trying to navigate and hope that their children make the right decisions if they ever get into trouble. ... View more