Terry: What are parents to do if they can’t get their child to go to school? The school is going to take a parent to court.
Absences: CHILD WILL NOT GO TO SCHOOL
Special Education Law and Advocacy
The first question I would ask is….why doesn’t the child want to go to school? It seems to me that there is more to this than meets the eye. Hopefully, the parents have gotten a through physical, mental health and educational assessment to answer that question.
Behavior can be a very tricky thing to figure out, especially if it’s related to a disability or deficit that impacts the student at school.
Too many schools or parents jump the gun thinking that the refusal is intentional or fully within the child’s control. To me it’s a huge red flag that possibly the student is in distress for some reason and they may not have the appropriate supports or services to meet their needs in school or they can’t cope in the environment they’re currently in. Hopefully, they can work it out instead of escalating the situation.
Good school attorneys will tell a school that they have a responsibility to assist the parents in getting the child to school. But convincing the school of this will not be easy. Mediation is probably the fastest & best way to try to get them to work with the parents. I heard of one school who took their responsibility to the point of sending a person to the home each day to get the child out of bed!