Why is EBSA more common nowadays?

[HotLikePapaJohns]

Why is EBSA more common nowadays?

I have read on other threads that it's always been an issue but I don't remember it as a child. Yes, there was some truancy in secondary but not in primary.

Is it that kids are more able to express their feelings? Or that school has become harder? What can be done about it?

I got very high grades through a mixture of work ethic, fear, and hope for the future - I am autistic and was in secondary in the halcyon days of the 2010s when the "pass your A Levels and get a good job" social contract was still intact. I think I'd be existentially horrified if I were a teen in education now - what's the point in trying so hard when there are no jobs anyway?

I also think that shunting too many kids into higher ed to do pointless degrees at low-tariff unis is silly.

Good question. In my experience it's very varied. Some schools send work but it's nothing like actually being taught something. It feels a bit like the first lockdown when kids were getting work sent home but most schools hadn't worked out how to actually teach. In some cases the child gets a tutor for a few hours a week. In some cases there might be some kind of alternative provision, again for a few hours a week. In some cases they might make it into the send base at school for a few hours and maybe be given some worksheets.

The ideal is that these children will get help and support to get them back into a place where they can attend school as normal again. It's a very slow process and in my experience many of the children end up in an alternative provision which may or may not give them a good education. Some are wonderful, some less so.

Bullshit. It's kids being made to be in an environment they can't cope with then completely shut down (parent of a daughter with ebsa and recently diagnosed asd)

More bullshit

Why can't they cope?

Does not coping at school = not coping at uni = not coping in independent adult life?

There is no requirement on a school to send work home when a student can't attend (although often they will). The duty is on the local authority if a child hasn't attended for.15 days, or at the point it looks like that will be likely.

Mine didn’t cope in school but is coping in college. In fact she is improving all the time.
They are completely different environments, I think one of the things that help is they have more control/responsibility for themselves.

Tried this approach with my child - TWELVE YEARS later he is still school phobic. Nothing “dwindled” here.

if you’ve never had a child with EBSA then respectfully you do not know what you are talking about.

I can tell you the exact reasons. It’s complicated:

1. Parents nowadays criticise school and ‘the system’ and children absorb this. ‘My child is too young/summer born/in Scandinavia there’s no school until seven’ - if you say these things, children will internalise them.
2. Children have attention lavished upon them at home, every weekend there are treats and fun times and activities. Few children grow up in a strict-ish system (or even a chaotic household) with lots of siblings anymore, it’s undivided attention and lots of fun.
3. Parents have worked from home since Covid. Children wonder why they can’t stay home too. It’s also easier to let them have a day at home if they ask for it (slippery slope).
4. We have pathologised normal worries. Feeling anxious is completely normal, we all have to crack on.
5. I watched a child clinging to her mum before school the other day. The mum’s response was frankly, insane. She proceeded to give the child a million bits of information to process instead of giving her a kiss and leaving. We’ve forgotten that our children are not an extension of us; we can no longer hold their worries for them.
6. You don’t have to go to school to spend time with friends anymore, they are permanently around on your phone.

Neurodivergence of course plays a part, but loads of ND children do well at school because the structure suits them.

I agree with pps that a big part of it is that it just wasn't tracked as much decades back. I often disappeared from school and it was barely a thing back then. It was viewed as the parents and for teenagers their responsibility to take up what was offered, not the school. That's changed a lot.

Also, while there is talk on here at different times of year around all the choice parents have, many don't have many options. If your local school is either a terrible fit for your kid or just a hostile environment, it's going to cause more issues and yes, some parents are more likely to challenge than they used to.

Does not coping at school = not coping at uni = not coping in independent adult life?

Not automatically.

My DD1 did not cope well at secondary - no attendance issues, she'd get upset to the point of hysterics if the bus was late as she worried about being late, possibly getting detention, and there were weeks where every day had tears before, during, and after school. She was and still is the Lawful Good toeing the line type.

She has since worked in secondary and primary schools, no issues. It's surprised me, I was wary of her going into education with her experiences, but she's like an entirely different person.

A large part of it is, if someone's shouting at her or using abusive language at her, she's now allowed to walk away, get other staff involved or put the phone down.

When she was in secondary as a student, she often couldn't walk away and when she tried to get help from staff, she was often told she was being too sensitive, that the other kids 'didn't mean' what as an adult she is promptly told is racially abusive language that she doesn't have to and shouldn't accept. I had to intervene and threaten to make a formal complaint to get a teacher to stop making jokes about her heritage (I'm an immigrant, the teacher made jokes at her about where I'm from regularly, a place she's never been), her getting upset and asking him to stop wasn't good enough - and that's with me being a governor at the school and fairly well known to the staff, I often wondered how much farther it would have had to go if I was a 'normal' parent who wasn't well known and clearly up to date on the complaints procedure.

Oh, and it turned out her fear of detention came from a teacher who would mock students, particularly if they were the good students who'd never been in trouble before, if they got late detentions.

Unsurprisingly, when I was able to move DS2 to a different school when he was experiencing similar, a lot of things improved for him too.

Many adults don't cope well in that type of hostile environment, I don't think we should be surprised that kids don't either and can improve when in a better one. Helping kids to access those environment, and helping more schools to be those environment, is part of solution - which is hard with how much is piled onto school's plates at the moment.

What absolute rubbish. DD2 was anxious in year R. It came to a head in year 1 and she became physically ill. We tried everything. She limped through to year 10 with various school changes and then a really supportive primary school who saw that she had ASD (I had been saying it since she was 18 months old and she got her diagnosis at 11). Secondary school was pretty awful but we managed to get her through the first 3 years. Then she broke down and after trying various measures, the year head told me to stop trying to bring her to school because it was so obvious that she couldn't cope. She ended up out of school, then in a special school in a class of 4, then out of school because she couldn't cope with that, then on an EOTAS package, then into another special school with 1:1 support and a bespoke timetable. Guess what? Still can't cope and has had to have a part-time timetable with staff picking her up and dropping her home (something they normally do at the beginning settling stage of school introductions).

DD3 was anxious in preschool. She had nightmares about the first preschool and begged me not to take her back. She went happily to the Montessori pre-school. At primary school I had to carry her in with socks and shoes in my hands because the sensory issues were awful - I then discovered that you could buy seamless socks and pants at £5 per pair and it was amazing. She developed mild OCD in Year R because they did a 'germ busters' topic. That ramped up in year 8 and by year 9 she had tics and was having to spend time in the SEN block with staff spraying worksheets with antibacterial spray (they didn't know that it was making things worse and they were trying to help). By year 10 she was out of school completely, then in year 11 she started at a special school with 1:1 support and a bespoke timetable.

They were both unwell by the time they left school. Not just a bit anxious.

Some people are very ignorant. Lockdown was really catastrophic for some children, particularly those who are neurodivergent. No parent wants their child to not attend school. It’s incredibly stressful for the whole family. My nephew is non verbal. Autism and ADHD run very strongly through my family. It’s not a buzz word.

Lockdown ended nearly 5 years ago though?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

They probably won’t be a “well adjusted” adult because the vast majority of children with EBSA are neurodivergent and are trying to exist in a world that is not built for them.

Some children genuinely can’t cope with school, and that’s really sad. They’ve always existed. Some (current) parents are making a right hash of boundaries around expectations, demands, tech, functioning in a busy environment, doing stuff children don’t fancy doing. This needs to change.

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.

I totally understand avoiding school due to incessant bullying. My DS lost it and cracked a bully right on the nose back in year 9. School were sympathetic but he was temporarily suspended as violence was a big no no.

One of DS's friends had something where he'd be able to come to school but could not bring himself to enter the class. With the right medication, he overcame this and thrived in his subjects and did really well (even at uni). A few years ago I'd probably have the silly "just force them into school, they should get over it" response. But that's incredibly stupid. You need to help them manage and deal with the anxiety.

What do you expect for your DC in adult life?

I am so glad you posted this and as a former teacher I completely agree with you. I actually think that the current rigidity in the system is the cause of many issues. I don’t agree with PP’s who say that in years past schooling was more rigid. That was not my experience as a pupil or teacher.
There should be more options for young people to access purely online learning if that suits them. Or actually instead of secondary school let them learn a trade, plumbing, gas fitting, plastering or brick laying. They should be able to exclusively study Drama, Art or Music, Sport, Agriculture or Environmental studies as an alternative to the current Secondary school system and its emphasis on ‘academic’ results. So many parents and young people have been sold the lie that getting a degree guarantees a job and satisfaction with life. I realise my ideas are just a utopian dream but what a happier and more productive society we would have.
Years ago there were plenty of opportunities to leave school at much younger ages and go into employment or apprenticeships. My own DM left school at 14. She then went straight to secretarial college and had decent career after that. I myself left school at 16 with two O’levels. I worked and studied part time (evenings and day release) as an adult until I could access teacher training. This route into qualifications and employment has also largely been shut down. I really feel for parents and young people nowadays. It’s not just a case of drag them into school and all will be fine.

True. My daughter’s EBSA started after lockdown but she’s an adult now. I think as a teacher we’ve seen a rise in EBSA since lockdown and schools haven’t really recovered. I teach secondary so those children will still have been affected at some point in their education and I do think that’s had an impact and continues to do so.

What do you mean?

The other thing that’s increased is internal truancy. So children go to school but then are not attending lessons.

When I started teaching, these were the pupils who would disappear off into town all day. It can’t be done nowadays because the site is secure and we chase up any child not in lessons.