Inability to attend school due to anxiety

[SheWoreARaspberryBeret123]

Hoe do you persuade your anxious child to try going into school?

I'm at the end of my tether here 🙈

Please dont waste your time OP writing letters on their own. Take some practical action from all the suggested points. Visit out of hours. Visit other schools. Try putting some of the suggestions to your child. An hour a day then two or three. I feel like you maybe have written off the possibility of overcoming the anxiety and a return. I hope not especially of he was thriving before it's so unlikely it is SEN and much more likely it's a period or isolated anxiety that he needs help to understand and overome.

Do you meet the Equality Act’s definition of being disabled? If so, yes. If no, then obviously no. A learning disability is a specific medical diagnosis so unless your child has that specific diagnosis then no you can’t say they have a learning disability.

It does matter because one is a diagnosed disorder and one is part of the typical human condition. In the same way an adult wouldn’t be able to self certify off sick with ‘feeling anxious’ for 6 months but could be signed off for 6 months by their dr with a clinical diagnosis of anxiety. We have no idea what the OPs parameters are that leads to her having decided her child is refusing due to anxiety, she could be right or could be completely off the mark.

No you don’t need a diagnosis to be classed as having a disability and therefore you can meet the definition of having SEN without a diagnosis. The equality act states the cause of the impairment doesn’t need to be established.

Like I said your being obtuse and its unhelpful.

If that “typical human condition” is to the point it impairs day to day functioning it doesn’t matter whether you call it feeling anxious or anxiety because either way it meets the definition of being a disability and SEN.

Yes, OP could be off the mark but I tend to take OPs at face value since she said it was the reason otherwise you could be here all day thinking up random scenarios the OP hasn’t mentioned that may be the case.

No, I’m not being obtuse I am challenging assertion anxiety to the point it leads to ENSA can’t be a SEN when it absolutely can.

*EBSA

My DS suffered from anxiety based school refusal. My advice is to contact your local parent partnership sometimes called SENDIASS.
School anxiety is part of their remit. They will attend meetings at school with you and ensure the school is doing what they should to support your son.
This would involve some of the measures mentioned above such as a phased return reduced timetable, time out cards, reduced homework, mentor etc
Schools don't always step up in these situations. My DS was diagnosed with anxiety and depression by CAMHs. School then marked him absent as sick. They had no interest in putting in support until I got SENDIASS involved.

It's not your wrong and I would ask that you come up with helpful advice for the OP or just dont bother commenting. To suggest she can self diagnose her son and will be given protected rights for the disabled is insulting as she wont.

The amount of ignorance on this thread is astonishing.

Anxiety which prevents a child from attending school absolutely is SEN, as pointed out by PPs it is specifically referred to in the SENCOP. This anxiety often derives from undiagnosed SEN, schools have cut funding, they simply don't have the resources to diagnose bright children with things like dyslexia or masking children with ASD.

I would have sworn blind that my school refuser had no SEN it wasn't until the wheels fell off when trying to force him into school when anxious and he tried to kill himself that we requested and ECHNA and this uncovered complex.needs, asd, spd, dyslexia, clinical anxiety and depression and trauma from trying to force him into an incorrect environment.

His alternative provision was full time. He did his GCSEs at home, invigilated, and fully funded by the LA who acknowledged that there was no school that could meet his needs and he has now reintegrated to a mainstream selective 6th form for A Levels with a view to going to University. He has been able to do that because we removed him from the inappropriate environment and had his theraputic needs addressed, also funded by the LA.

Now the OPs son may well cope with a part time timetable but an assumption, because nothing is diagnosed that there is nothing other than a bit of worry that he needs to be forced through is incorrect and potentially harmful.

Well unless the OP is a mental health professional she isn’t qualified to diagnoseher child with anxiety so there are myriad reasons why her child could have suddenly decided that they don’t wish to attend school, from possible anxiety to not fancying it, to wanting to spend more time on their x box! The fact that she mentions CAMHS suggests she may have accessed mental health services hence my question.

I have just read the equality act and the definition. It seems that this impairment should be long term (eg. lasting for at least a year) or be a life long impairment.

No, I’m not wrong. Nowhere have I suggested OP self diagnose. I have made suggestions to the OP e.g. provision under s.19 of the Education Act and therapies available via EHCPs. Just because you don’t agree with me doesn’t mean I can’t post.

I didn’t suggest OP self diagnose her DS. I took her at her word.

Cansu, it is either lasting or likely to last at least a year.

The fact that it has started within a year doesn't prevent it from being a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

I gave up trying and now home Ed my year 10. She's a different child now and I regret the 2 years I spent trying to persuade her to go and begging the school for help.

No it doesn't but it also suggests it is a disorder or condition that will not be resolved within a few months.

In the absence of any mention of a clinical diagnosis it is more reasonable to assume a self diagnosis. In which case the OP should be encouraged to acces clinical support for her child via mental health services so that the anxiety can be correctly diagnosed and a treatment plan made

As the OP is at the end of her tether the situation has clearly gone on for some time already, and as the situation isn’t going to miraculously disappear overnight it is a fair assumption the impairment is likely to last at least 12 months. It doesn’t need to have already lasted 12 months.

Not being difficult but you don't know whether it will or won't.

Have you first hand experience with ESBA or are you trying to apply a common sense approach?

Well yes, obviously further support should be sought, but that doesn’t mean OP has self diagnosed. OP has sought therapy, she posted as much. And additional therapies can be secured via an EHCP.

I give up. I honestly cant believe that you think a 10yr old would have SEN and the parents would have not had a clue up to this point. The OP describes her child as a popular child who loved school before this and who she thinks does not have SEN just localised anxiety. Therefore your posts arent helpful as you are trying to lead her thoughts in a direction that suits your own narrative. Why I am not sure.

I give up. I honestly cant believe that you think a 10yr old would have SEN and the parents would have not had a clue up to this point

And yet that's exactly what happened with my child.

Are you saying I'm lying ?

I think you will have known if I am honest. I think it's very unlikely you had a popular child who has never struggled at school who now has ASD yes sorry.