Who Are We

School Can’t Australia (SCA) was established in 2014, in response to the lack of dedicated support services for families whose children and young people are experiencing school attendance difficulties. SCA provides peer support for parents and primary carers through a Facebook group.

SCA is run by volunteers, who are themselves parents and carers of children and young people experiencing school attendance difficulties. Many of our volunteers have qualifications in allied health and teaching.

SCA provides peer advice and support for parents including:

• Connection and mutual support.

• A safe space to unpack and make sense of what has happened.

• Guidance and lived experience knowledge.

• Building parent/carer well-being.

• General information and advice on issues relevant to school can’t.

• An opportunity to help others.

• Direction to external crisis and emergency support.

• Direction to resources and support services.

• Face-to-face and online parent/support support meetings.

Other activities of the group include:

• Advocating for the needs of parents, carers, children and young people.

• Collaborating with researchers and policymakers.

• Conducting lived experience research.

• Raising awareness and creating shared understandings of school can’t.

SCA currently has over 10,000 members with almost 2000 members waiting to join the Facebook group. Membership has been doubling in size every year since the group started. We urgently require funding to reduce the long wait times for membership to our group.