Anxiety-Based School Avoidance (ABSA) is a broad umbrella term used to describe a group of children and young people who have severe difficulty in attending school due to emotional factors, often resulting in prolonged absences from school.
You might hear other areas refer to this as “emotionally based school avoidance” or “school refusal”. Here in Manchester, we are trying to avoid the use of the latter because the term ‘refuser’ implies that the child or young person has control over the school non-attendance. This is problematic as this terminology locates the ‘problem’ within the young person and detracts from environmental factors that could be considered instrumental in supporting a young person back to school.
Manchester has an Anxiety-based School Avoidance document, which acts as a guidance for schools, sharing best practice in identifying and supporting those at risk of not attending school as a result of anxiety.
You can also find more information about ABSA on Manchester City Council’s website.
Below are some articles and events on our website that relate to Anxiety-Based School Avoidance:
