School Avoidance, Anxiety and Re-Engagement

School Avoidance · EBSA

When school feels unsafe

School avoidance is often misunderstood as defiance or disengagement. For many young people, it is an anxiety response. The nervous system has come to experience school as overwhelming, unpredictable or emotionally unsafe — and avoidance is the brain's protective mechanism.

That means attendance interventions based purely on pressure, reward or consequence can sometimes increase distress rather than reduce it. The young person is not being difficult. They are trying to protect themselves.

Relationship before demand

Young people are more likely to re-engage when they experience adults as calm, safe and genuinely relational. Before attendance improves, trust often has to improve first.

The Baxter Project is designed around this principle. We do not begin with demands. We begin with a dog, a walk, and a practitioner who has no agenda other than showing up consistently.

Why the informal approach works

Many young people with Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) have become adept at reading whether adult attention comes with an agenda. The moment they sense performance or pressure is expected, they withdraw.

A dog walk removes that dynamic. There is no desk, no worksheet, no eye contact required. There is just movement and presence — and within that, the possibility of a conversation.

What change can look like

We rarely begin by tracking attendance. We track engagement, emotional regulation, willingness to try, and relationship quality. Often, attendance follows from these — but it is never the starting point of the work.

ODISSYS allows us to measure wellbeing over time using validated tools including SWEMWBS and SDQ — so schools can see evidence of internal change before external change becomes visible.

See how we work with EBSA and school avoidance specifically: Who we help →