Son (16) refuses to go to brick and mortar school. Help!

[Patria11]

My sixteen year old has been in online school for years because he was creating chaos at the schools. He is getting increasingly unmanageable and withdrawn. Will go days without speaking to me, is hostile and emotionally abusive and intimidating. My home has become a sad place for me. I enrolled him in our physical school for the last year of high school. He has good grades and no damaging record. He told me he will go to jail rather than go to the physical school. He has sabotaged, lied, manipulated in past psychological treatment attempts. He has refused to take medication that was prescribed. I am at the end of my rope but don't want any legal consequences for myself. I have done everything I can possibly do. He is 6'3" He has not done or said a loving thing to me in many years.

Stupid phone are Not!

I think it's going to be next to impossible to force an agoraphobic boy into physical school. He needs professional support and tiny steps.

There are school refusers in the UK. What happens is after a while the Educational Welfare Officer will become involved, and needs to assess whether the parents are trying to provide their child with an education or not. In your circumstances if you were HE ing that would be deemed okay.
He would also be expected to see his GP (doctor) and get it registered that he was having issues. Ideally he would be referred to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service).

If he was really disturbed he could be forcibly admitted, but he would have to be really unwell and a danger to himself and others.

BTW from the Wikipaedia page, the incarceration rate of Juveniles in the US is at least 4 times that of England and Wales or Scotland.
Do you watch a lot of Fox news?

Not true back. Posted on Constitutional Attorney's website. I know, horrifying.

Ok, you guys started insulting me in order to feel superior. As I just posted the information is from a legitimate source. (perhaps google it and research it for yourself0 Yes, the US has a horrific incarceration rate, highest in the world, horrifying. The article I read was about juveniles who were unmanageable at home being house, uncharged in UK jails.

With your snobbery you have driven me off the site. Shame on you and goodbye.

Patria nobody was insulting you, just saying the article you read was giving you incorrect information.

Well, I'm quite happy that the OP recognises that an accusation of watching Fox News is indeed a terrible insult.

When does he turn 17?

I looked up CO it seems like he has to be under 16 to be formally truant, but is there no truancy officer in your city who you can talk to? What does the school say they can do to help?

OP is right: there's F-all online support groups for American parents of would-be drop outs. That's appalling :(.

Leaving age of 16 is one of the terrific things in the English system, I hope we all now agree.

ps: I chatted recently with a cousin who was a drop-out, got her GED eventually. She said that the only thing that really would have helped was an alternative school where she had freedoms. Good luck. x

Sorry but the fact you quote are wrong!
And I can't find any such website.

I have looked an cannot find anything that says such a thing, and as I know from highly educated friends in the US - often facts about the UK are twisted to present the US in a better light.
We don't do everything right, and there is a desperate need for more help for Juvenile mental health, but neither do we just chuck them in prison without trial.

But I don't think anyone here would come onto a US website and start making such untrue statements.

Your son needs help. You need help and none of us can suggest places you might get such help. We have suggested that you look for more local websites to help you.

It's very odd how everyone has been very empathic and supportive but OP has still flounced off. I understand this is a very challenging situation for her but her reaction is rather odd.