The kids who can’t go to school

29 April 2024

Four Corners documentary on school attendance difficulties. School Can’t Australia and some of our families were heavily consulted and featured by filmmaker Sasha Ettinger-Epstein to share parental lived experience.

National survey finds school refusal a wider problem having a big impact on families

8 Nov 2023

ABC exclusive coverage of Green’s national poll on school refusal and the impacts on families. School Can’t Australia featured with input from one of our admin Tiffany.

Why more kids are refusing to go to school

23 Aug 2023

ABC’s national education and parenting reporter Conor Duffy says school refusal is a stress based response and what can be done to stop it, including input from Tiffany Westphal from School Can’t Australia.

More support needed for parents as Senate report into school refusals outlines path for change

12 Aug 2023

Conor Duffy covers the Senate inquiry into School Refusal recommendations featuring School Can’t Australia’s Tiffany Westphal.

School can’t, not won’t: How to know if your child has school refusal – and what to do about it

14 Feb 2023

School Can’t Australia’s Tiffany Westphal shared member survey results indicating 57 different stressors led to children being unable to attend school, including emotional, social, sensory and structural issues. If those stressors weren’t reduced or addressed they could lead to mental illness and to students being unable to attend school.

My 9-year-old son refuses to go to school. People say it’s my fault.'

4 Feb 2023

Opinion piece written by a parent from the School Can't Facebook community

Helping kids who won't go to school

9 Jan 2023

Discussion about Senate Inquiry into the tricky issue of school refusal, where kids simply won't go to school. Featuring School Can’t Australia’s Tiffany Westphal.

School refusal: supporting students getting back in the classroom

17 Nov 2022

A Mum called Sarah talks to Richelle Hunt about the School Refusal Inquiry.

Senate to investigate growing trend of ‘school refusal’ after Covid pandemic classroom disruptions

27 Oct 2022

In October 2022, a federal senate inquiry was announced into school refusal. 

'It's not about behaviour': parents warn views on school refusal must change

17 Oct 2022

Tiffany and Louise were interviewed by Sarah Duggan from @Education HQ.

"The key for parents, Westphal says, is to identify what lies at the root of a child’s anguish about being at school."

Readers share stories of school refusal in Australia: ‘It scarred us and changed us forever’

10 Oct 2022

Many of our School-Can’t members responded to The Guardian reader callout for lived experience stories of school attendance difficulties. These are our stories.

Early signs get missed: moves to support Australian families whose children refuse to go to school

28 Sep 2022

In this follow up article from The Guardian, parents and experts weigh in on efforts to address and prevent school attendance difficulties in our Australian schools, including programs to promote mental health and wellbeing. The article highlights the lack of data, that is predictive and indicative of trends relating to school attendance difficulties. We agree! We need schools around the country to capture data that tells us who, why, where and for how long students are absent from school (including exclusions and part time attendance plans). We also need the data about why students are enrolling for home-schooling and remote learning.

Families can fall apart over this stuff’: the children refusing to go to school

22 Sep 2022

The Guardian Australia recently interviewed Tiffany and Louise, two of our administrators, for the first in a series of articles on school attendance difficulties in Australia, highlighting the recent rapid growth of our peer support group.

Many thanks go to reporter Sophie Black and The Guardian editors, for handling this story with such sensitivity and care.