Hot Topic - Emotional Based School Avoidance

Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA)

The terms we use really do matter..... 

Many terms have been used to describe children’s absence from school and historically these have included terms such as ‘school refusal’ and ‘truancy.’ However, where the reasons behind a child’s non-attendance in school is rooted in high level anxiety, we must be more careful about the language we use. Terms such as school refusal implies that the young person is making a conscious choice to avoid school but as our understanding grows, this implication that the children are making such a choice is misleading. The idea of a young person with extreme anxiety making a choice to deliberately break the rules and defy authority is unfair and implies blame rather than recognising their attempts to cope and reduce their anxiety.

The research has shown that young people who are absent from school, for emotionally based reasons, feel misunderstood and are frustrated by terms which fail to recognise the potentially debilitating effects of anxiety. Terms such as ‘Emotionally Based School Avoidance’’ (EBSA) or ‘Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance’ (EBSNA) go some way to recognising the challenges faced.

What the ZestLab Team are learning.....

At ZestLab we work with young people, families and schools to identify and support young people with emotionally based school avoidance / non-attendance and break down the barriers to a successful education. We take a holistic and realistic approach recognising the challenges for everyone involved. 

Two years in to our specific and targeted work with young people not in school, we are learning a lot and noticing patterns with presenting barriers. Many of the young people we work with have additional needs that have not been diagnosed or identiifed, this coupled with very limited resources in schools to provide required support can lead to anxiety and social emotional needs becoming the dominating SEND need. We are also noticing how isolated families with young people absent from school for a significant time are becoming and additional pressures this can present on family dynamics. Relationships between home and school can be fragmented, challenging and inconsistent. Young people in this situation have very often lost their sense of identity, feel disconnected from their peers and limited thoughts about future aspirations. 

To help us navigagte and make progress we take an approach of staying curious, listen to everyone so that we can recognise the challenges and develop a holistic understanding and what seems to be key is working with professional urgency.

Want to know more about our work either as a parent or a professional then please do get in touch. [email protected]

© ZestLab (2025)