🚨School Avoidance or Truancy?

 THE CRISIS NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT

By Marie Lewis, BCEA, PhD |

National Special Education Advocacy Institute (NSEAI)

Empowering Families. Educating Advocates. Holding Systems Accountable.

🔍 Is It Truancy — or a Cry for Help?

More than 1 in 4 students in the U.S. missed 10% or more of school last year. But what’s truly terrifying isn't just the number — it’s the silence surrounding why.

Across the country, children with anxiety, autism, trauma, or learning disabilities are being labeled as “truant”—fined, dragged into court, and even jailed—without ever being evaluated for a disability.

We are criminalizing mental health.
We are punishing pain.
And we are failing our most vulnerable learners.

🎯 This isn’t truancy. This is school avoidance. And it’s a signal, not a crime.

📉 What’s Really Happening?

The full article, "School Avoidance or Truancy? What Parents and Educators Need to Know About the Epidemic of School Absences", exposes the legal, emotional, and systemic failures behind the national rise in absenteeism — especially for students in special education.

Key Findings:

• Students with disabilities are 1.5x more likely to be chronically absent.
• 50–60% of children with emotional disorders receive no school-based mental health support.
• Schools are referring children to court before evaluating them — violating federal law (IDEA & 504).
• Many medical providers have stopped collaborating with schools, leaving families alone and unsupported.

🎓 "We don't have a school-to-prison pipeline. We have a school-ignores-disability-to-juvenile-justice pipeline."

⚠️ Who Needs This?

• Parents navigating school anxiety, IEPs, or scary court letters
• Teachers & counselors unsure how to support chronically absent students
• Judges & magistrates making decisions with incomplete educational info
• Advocates & attorneys fighting for fair treatment and legal compliance
• Policy leaders ready to end the criminalization of mental health
•  

🧠 What You’ll Learn in the Full 31 Page Guide:

✅ The difference between truancy and school avoidance
✅ How schools violate federal Child Find obligations
✅ What parents can do before stepping into court
✅ How mental health needs go undiagnosed and unsupported
✅ What judges should ask before assigning penalties
✅ Real-life case studies of advocacy success
✅ Sample evaluation request letters, documentation templates, and legal references
✅ State-by-state truancy laws and what they don’t require (spoiler: evaluations)
✅ Tools to avoid due process and OCR complaints
✅ Policy recommendations that could change everything

📥 This Is Your Must-Have Advocacy Guide

🎁 Download the Full Article (FREE):

👉 Click here to get your copy now
(This PDF includes tools, templates, sample letters, and critical guidance for school administrators, parents, judges and school psychologists.)

Whether you're a parent, educator, or policymaker, you can't afford to ignore this crisis.

This guide is not just information — it’s a call to action.

✊ Join the Movement

📣 Truancy is not a character flaw. It’s a red flag.
📣 Absences are not defiance. They are distress.
📣 Let’s stop punishing pain — and start supporting solutions.

🔗 Learn more at www.nseai.org

📧 Questions? Contact: [email protected]
📞 Need help? Call: 610-621-4062

💡 Share this post with someone who needs to read it.
Let’s make sure no child falls through the cracks—ever again.