Understanding EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoidance)
EBSA is a term used when a child struggles to attend school due to overwhelming emotional distress. Unlike truancy, EBSA comes from feelings of anxiety, social fear or sensory overwhelm, and is often rooted in experiences like bullying, academic pressure, and discomfort felt in the physical environment of a school.
Emotional Barriers to School Attendance’ (EBSA)
There are a range of terms used to describe this struggle, with some centred on the child’s feelings towards school (EBSA is an acronym for Emotional Based School Avoidance, which is also known as school refusal and school avoidance) and alternative terms which switch the responsibility from the child who is struggling with the school environment to the environment of the school itself (EBSA is also the acronym for Emotional Barriers to School Attendance, and terms such as ‘barriers to school engagement and/or attendance’ are also used as alternatives).
Regardless of the terminology used, it is important not to ignore or downplay the emotional distress of EBSA and to make sure the child feels that it is taken seriously by the adults around them. There has been a rising prevalence of EBSA post-pandemic: Before 2020, school absence rates were around 4–5% in England. By 2023/24, overall absence rose to 7.1%, with persistent absenteeism doubling and severe cases more than doubling. If unaddressed, EBSA can lead to trauma, derail academic achievement and trigger prolonged anxiety or depression. Early support and addressing the root causes of EBSA is crucial.
What Drives EBSA?
There are many reasons for experiencing EBSA and no two children are the same. However, there are a range of drivers that show up repeatedly in surveys of families with children who have EBSA. These are the top ten reasons from a survey from 2020.
- Anxiety Disorder: 87%
- Sensorial difficulties: 66%
- SEND (inadequate support, no EHCP): 54%
- Social/friendship difficulties: 52%
- SEND (undiagnosed): 51%
- Breaks and lunchtimes: 51%
- Academic pressure: 46%
- School culture: 44%
- Cognitive difficulties: 40%
- Excessive school discipline: 39%
Another survey of children with school attendance difficulties found that 92% were neurodivergent, and 83% were autistic (Connolly & Mullally, 2022).
EBSA often stems from a complex interplay of internal (e.g., anxiety disorder) and external factors (e.g., bullying, the school environment), and is very frequently amplified by special educational needs that haven’t necessarily been formally diagnosed. The main reasons behind it are push factors rather than pull factors. EBSA is not driven by children who want to stay home from school because they are lazy and want to spend all day gaming. These are children who feel overwhelmed by the commotion of the school canteen, or anxious about getting a detention for forgetting homework, or upset because friends have turned against them or peers have been cruel.
It’s also important to note that pupils with EBSA don’t necessarily have lower academic potential than other pupils, although there is a risk of them falling behind their peers due to gaps in learning from persistent absence, and because emotional distress can reduce cognitive capacity, focus, and motivation even when students are present. In fact, high academic potential can contribute to EBSA, because gifted or high-achieving students may experience intense pressure to perform, leading to anxiety, perfectionism, or fear of failure, and academically able students are sometimes assumed to be coping because they achieve well, leading to delayed identification of EBSA.
How to Recognise EBSA
Recognising and responding to the early signs of EBSA is important to avoid ongoing anxiety leading to trauma and missed learning. Each child is different, but signs of EBSA typically start in primary school and escalate in secondary school. Pupils may complain of physical symptoms (nausea, headaches, stomach issues) which can be genuine physical effects of anxiety or may be fabricated or exaggerated by the child in an attempt to avoid school. They may express dread before school or refuse to leave the house, or break down in tears about attending school, or refuse to enter specific spaces within the school environment (canteens, playgrounds). Returning to school after school holidays can be particularly difficult for pupils with EBSA, and their confidence and happiness can drop noticeably before the beginning of each school term.
How to Support Pupils with EBSA
If you suspect your child has EBSA, a starting point is to try and understand the drivers and let your child know that you recognise their distress and will do all you can to help them. Downplaying their feelings or using punishment to force attendance can escalate their anxiety and make the situation worse. Ask them to tell you about the reasons they don’t want to go to school, and see if you can find out the relative importance of the different factors to your child. Remember that what seems small to you may feel important to them. It can also be useful to find out more about the things your child likes about school, as there may be a chance to adjust their schooling to include more of what they like.
The next step is to speak to the school to explore whether any changes can be made to minimise triggers for EBSA and maximise your child’s enjoyment of school. For example, if a key factor is bullying within a form group, it may be possible to change forms. If the canteen is particularly challenging to navigate, the school may be willing to accommodate alternative lunchtime arrangements. If there are suspected undiagnosed educational needs, a conversation with the SENDCo (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator) could be helpful.
Some schools will be sympathetic and keen to make adjustments to improve your child’s school experience, and others will be less willing to make changes or engage in discussion. There may also be elements that are not possible to change within the school environment. If a key factor is sensory overload due to noise and commotion from classes of thirty students, there might be very little the school can do to mitigate this. Reviewing other options for schooling may be necessary, including reviewing alternative schools in the local area and considering online schooling, study hubs or homeschooling as alternatives.
Highgrove Education’s Approach
At Highgrove Education we frequently take on pupils who have EBSA and are looking for an alternative way to obtain a high-quality education. We offer a full education from home, including a rich extracurricular programme with clubs, a house system, elective courses and frequent student social events in person. Online school often instantly removes the drivers for EBSA, because it allows students to study from the comfort and familiarity of their own home, without having to deal with sensory overload or to navigate challenging social interactions. Our programmes are particularly suited to pupils who are ambitious academically, and we specialise in providing a bespoke education that is suited to the pupil rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Sometimes pupils with EBSA will have gaps in their education due to school absence, and online schooling can be a particularly helpful way of filling those gaps, as more of the work is self-paced than in a traditional school setting, and pupils in class-based programmes have additional one-to-one teacher support as an inclusive part of their provision. We also offer one-to-one programmes where a pupil has unique educational needs, and mixed year group enrolments, so pupils can take GCSEs in some subjects while completing year 9 materials in others, for example.
EBSA is not laziness or defiance, but rather emotional suffering with tangible consequences. The main drivers tend to be related to the school environment rather than related to ability or willingness to learn. With understanding, empathy, and structured, flexible support, schools and families can help pupils regain their enjoyment of education and flourish academically, socially and emotionally.
Speak with our team to find out more.
