School refusal: Strategies for getting your child back in the building
Everyone Gets a Juice Box: For Parents of Neurodivergent KidsShow Notes
Jessica is off this week, but we didn’t want to leave you without something great to listen to. So, in honor of back-to-school, we’re sharing an episode about school refusal from another Understood podcast, called In It.
Why do kids sometimes refuse to go to school? And what can families do about it, both in the moment and to avoid it in the future?
In this episode, hosts Gretchen Vierstra and Rachel Bozek hear from Erin, a returning guest whose family has struggled with school refusal challenges for years.
The hosts also talk with psychologist and Understood Expert Dr. Andrew Kahn, who shares some of the reasons that could be behind a child’s school refusal. He offers tips and strategies for turning the situation around.
More from Everyone Gets a Juice Box: For Parents of Neurodivergent Kids
We’re dropping into your feed a week early to announce a new investigative podcast from Understood.org. It’s called Zero Reject: The Uncertain Future of Special Education. This is episode 1. If you like it, follow Zero Reject wherever you get your podcasts.
In 1975, a federal law promised every child with a disability a free appropriate public education. Fifty years later, that promise is on shaky ground. Jessica talks with education reporter Anya Kamenetz, host of Understood’s podcast series Zero Reject, about cuts at the Office for Civil Rights, the roughly 25,000 complaints left in limbo, and why meetings for Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, feel like a battle. Plus: the parents who built special education, and what gives Anya hope.
Tehrima Rai spent years being told her son was “just picky.” Relatives blamed her parenting, and she struggled to get help. But Tehrima, a pediatrician herself, trusted her instincts and kept searching until she found the real answer: ARFID, an extreme fear of food that’s more common in neurodivergent kids. Through feeding therapy, logbooks, and her own experimentation, she helped her son eat — and finally healed deep wounds of her own. For more on this topic Listen: Why I stopped hiding my kid’s neurodivergence Watch: Guiding a neurodivergent kid through grief (by breaking all the rules)
Psychotherapist and ADHD expert Merriam Saunders spent years locked in daily battles with her strong-willed daughter. No form of discipline worked. Then one ordinary blowup led to an unexpected realization: The problem wasn’t defiance, it was an ADHD skills gap. And, crucially, she realized it wasn’t her daughter’s job to fix it.
For years, Margaret Ables believed the kindest thing she could do for her autistic child was to help them blend in. Then a single article reframed everything she thought she knew about acceptance and disclosure, and what her kid actually needed from her. She and host Jessica Shaw dig into the messy, evolving work of showing up as yourself in a world that isn't always built for you. This is a candid, funny, occasionally heartbreaking conversation about shame, self-advocacy, and belonging.