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District panel and clinician offer step-by-step strategies to help students with school anxiety
Summary
At a Parent University for Indian Prairie CUSD 204, Dr. Laura Koehler and district staff described why school refusal is usually anxiety-driven, demonstrated the STOP skill and grounding exercises, and urged coordinated home–school routines, soft-starts at school entrances and treating absences as sick days rather than rewards for avoidance.
Indian Prairie CUSD 204 held a Parent University session on school anxiety in which Dr. Laura Koehler of Endeavor Health Linden Oaks and a panel of district staff outlined practical steps families and schools can take when children avoid school.
"School refusal is not defiance. It's an avoidance driven by distress," Koehler said, framing avoidance as a short-term coping response that can weaken long-term resilience. She described school refusal as an "iceberg" — visible behaviors such as crying or refusing to enter school that rest on hidden causes like separation anxiety, social fears, test anxiety, executive-function challenges, sensory overload and family stress.
Koehler explained the "avoidance loop," in which staying home reduces anxiety in the moment and therefore reinforces future avoidance, and…
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