Is Anyone Else’s Teen Skipping Class?
I’m at a loss of what to do. My teen (15YO boy) started randomly skipping classes last year in the second half of 9th grade. What was interesting is that he would be at school the whole day, just not attending classes.
School staff eventually found out he was hiding and sometimes sleeping in hiding spots. We really put focus into sleep hygiene, believing that was the main issue.
The behavior continued and after many attempts to open up, part of what we realized is that he fell behind, didn’t do his part for a group project and had anxiety about accountability so was avoiding the social fallout.
I got him in for behavioral therapy and his therapist wasn’t convinced he has social anxiety or any other disorder, if anything was too smart. That wasn’t entirely helpful.
We had many meetings with a number of teachers, his counselor, the assistant principal, etc. Progress would be touch and go. His teachers were as at loss, because on paper, he appeared very ahead of his peers (he took advanced classes in middle school and had met his language and math credits upon entering high school).
He had to make up one class over the summer and with school starting early September, has already missed 60 classes between then and now. I just received two emails that he missed classes three days in row this week.
Idk what to do. Has anyone experienced this? Any advice? Has anyone been able to change the behavior?