Chronic Absenteeism and School Refusal: Session 300 with Kristen McNeely

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Matt Cicoria

Science, Mental Health, Skinner, Behaviorism, Behaviorconsultant, Aba, Behavioralpsychology, Health & Fitness, Appliedbehavioranalysis, Autism, Acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy, Fba, Social Sciences, Verbalbehavior, Bcba, Functionalassessment, Discretetrial

4.8 • 648 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kristen McNeely joins me for an informative discussion about the challenging topic of School Refusal and Chronic Absenteeism.

If you are in any way connected to a school community, you've probably heard about this difficult and growing problem. As we discuss in this episode, school refusal is an ever-growing concern, and it manifests itself in numerous ways.

Kristen is both a BCBA and a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist in California, and she spends nearly all of her time working with parents who have children who engage in school refusal.

In this episode, we cover:

The distinction between the terms Chronic Absenteeism and School Refusal.
How School Refusal can be thought of as a continuum of attendance patterns.
The role of anxiety in these response patterns.
Assessing the function of School Refusal behaviors.
Helping parents intervene with School Refusal.
The importance of wrap around supports for severe cases.
How School Refusal can turn into what's known as Failure to Launch.

You're going to want to listen all the way through to the end because she closes the show not only some awesome advice for the newly minted, but a poignant personal story.

Resources mentioned in this podcast:

The School Avoidance Alliance.
Kearney and Silverman (2010). Measuring the Function of School Refusal Behavior: The School Refusal Assessment Scale.
SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions).
Episode 58 of ABA Inside Track (Interview with Christopher Kearney).
Kristen's website.
Kristen's Instagram.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone, welcome to session 300 of the behavioral observations podcast. That's right. I said 300.
0:06.5	And much to the chagrin of my good friend Miguel Lovila. I did not do anything
0:12.5	extravagant or anything out of the ordinary for this milestone episode. But in a way,
0:20.2	this is an episode that perhaps characterizes what this show
0:23.9	is about. I basically have started the show, and I've tried to follow topics of my own interest,
0:29.7	topics that I think are relevant, and topics that maybe not a lot of you have heard about.
0:36.2	And so it's with that in mind, I'm really happy that
0:39.0	Kristen McNeely join me for an informative discussion about the challenging topic of school
0:43.7	refusal in chronic absenteeism. If you are in any way connected to a school community,
0:49.2	you've probably heard about this difficult and growing problem. As we discuss in this episode,
0:53.6	school refusal is an ever-growing
0:55.0	concern, and it manifests itself in numerous ways. Kristen is both a BCBA and a licensed marital
1:02.0	and family therapist in California, and she spends nearly all of her time working with parents
1:06.4	who have children who engage in school refusal. In this episode, we cover the following.
1:12.0	We talk about the distinction between the terms chronic absenteeism and school refusal. Sometimes these are used
1:16.3	interchangeably, but there are some differences between the two. We talk about how school refusal can
1:22.3	be thought of as a continuum of attendance patterns. We spend a decent amount of time talking about the role of anxiety and how that plays a part in school refusal. And because we not just want to understand this problem, but help make a difference in making it better, we talk about assessment and treatment of school refusal patterns. And in doing so, we talk about the importance
1:45.2	of wraparound supports for very severe cases, and some of the consequences of not resolving
1:50.5	school refusal behaviors, one of those being failure to launch, and we get into what that
1:56.3	actually means, and some of the consequences that can have for individuals.
2:04.5	You're going to want to listen all the way through to the end of this episode because Kristen closes this show with not only some excellent advice for newly minted, but she
2:09.8	shares a poignant personal story that I think will resonate with many of you out there,
	...

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