We Teach Schools

How to Get School Avoidance

Students Back in the Building

Learn from our expert instructors how to help your students return to school

We Teach Schools

How to Get School Avoidance

Students Back in the Building

Learn from our expert instructors how to help your students return to school

School avoidance and chronic absenteeism is a growing crisis that needs to be addressed right now

Every day a student misses school, it becomes harder to get them back, so intervening earlier and appropriately is essential

We proudly announce the most comprehensive school avoidance professional development available today.

Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Students Back to School.

Professional Development for school professionals

What You have Been Asking for is Here!

Finally, a comprehensive, relevant, and actionable professional development course on school avoidance is available for you and your colleagues.

This is different from those school refusal courses you have taken where you walk away frustrated and annoyed, feeling you learned nothing and your wasted precious time.

Chronic absenteeism due to school avoidance is our only focus. We are specialists dedicated to delivering the most up-to-date and valuable information you can use immediately.

We have been helping the school avoidance community since 2014. We are on a global mission to help educators like you improve student outcomes.

Our educator course has been years in the making using data and input from the world's leading school avoidance researchers, clinicians, and school professionals.

This comprehensive course features evidence-based data, best practices, and real-world feedback to ensure quality and value.

Why Educating Your Team on School Avoidance is Essential to Improving Outcomes

We understand and address the following frustrations that can impede progress.

  • Each student faced with school avoidance has individual causes and factors which can be challenging to determine.

  • School avoidance is also more difficult to combat because there are many misconceptions and inherent beliefs that can interfere with providing effective interventions.

  • Effective and beneficial school avoidance professional development has been scarce or unavailable, so most school staff have not had access to proper training.

  • Best practice interventions, strategies, and planning require a team of school professionals. Everyone must understand school avoidance to achieve proper implementation.

  • Compulsory education laws, educational and disability laws, attendance policies, and academic requirements add another layer of complexity that we break down in our training.

Feel Empowered, Equipped and ready to help your students

  • By discovering how parents of school-avoidant students feel to understand their points of view to help guide your communications and relationships for better collaborations.

  • By examining the latest global research from leading researchers on all aspects of school avoidance, you can access the most recent data on what works to help school-refusal kids.

  • By understanding facts, misconceptions, and signs that foster earlier interventions and appropriate responses.

  • By hearing how our experts use first-line interventions, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Exposure therapy so you learn exactly how these therapies should look when used correctly for your students.

  • By listening to parental strategies, you can share with your families to give them the tools and courage to help their children.

  • By learning all about the four functions of school refusal and how to use the SRAS-R, presented by the co-author herself, Dr. Anne Marie Albano, from Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders.

  • By exploring the Intersection of educational and disability law to see how they affect your student's access to accommodations, modifications, and services.

  • By learning reintegration strategies & a reintegration roadmap based on real-world guidance from school psychologists, global research, and insights from our parent and educator communities.

  • By seeing Tier 1 strategies and prevention planning to prevent kids from becoming school-avoidant.

Learn from Leading Experts in the Field

of School Avoidance Today

Our course differs from most professional development in that our instructors are the leading clinicians, researchers, and voices of school avoidance today. For example, the co-author of the School Refusal Assessment Scale (SRAS-R), Dr. Anne Maire, co-author Albano, teaches the module on the four functions of school refusal and the School Refusal Assessment Scale (SRAS-R).

You also get access to our other top-notch instructors from Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CUCARD), UCLA, Center for Anxiety and Behavioral Change, and the Anxiety Institute

Meet Your School Avoidance Instructors

Dr. Jonathon Dalton

Founder, Director –

Center for Anxiety & Behavioral Change

Dr. Dalton is one of our country's leading psychologists treating kids with school avoidance and anxiety disorders. He is a fierce advocate, educating others that evidence-based treatments, such as CBT, are vital to helping kids with school avoidance and severe anxiety disorders.

He is a licensed psychologist, founder, and director of the Center for Anxiety and Behavioral Change (CABC) in Rockville, Maryland. He specializes in treating anxiety disorders in children and teens, focusing on anxiety-based school refusal.

He completed two years of pre-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine – Kennedy Krieger Institute and advanced postdoctoral training at the Maryland Center for Anxiety Disorders at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Anne Marie Albano

Founder – Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders (CUCARD) – Columbia University

Dr. Albano is a Professor of Medical Psychology in Psychiatry at Columbia University and board-certified in clinical child and adolescent psychology. She is the Founder and Director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CUCARD)in New York City.

Dr. Albano has co-authored over 200 articles and chapters, conducts clinical research, supervises the research and clinical development of interns and postdoctoral fellows in psychology and psychiatry, and is involved in the advanced training of senior clinicians in CBT. One of her most well-known works is co-authoring "Children and You and Your Anxious Child: Free Your Child from Fears and Worries and Create a Joyful Family Life" with Leslie Pepper.

She has been awarded the "Outstanding Contribution by an Individual for Clinical Activities" distinction by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

Ph.D Anthony Puliafico

Director Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders (CUCARD)- Columbia University

Anthony Puliafico, Ph.D. is an associate professor of medical psychology in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He serves as director of CUCARD Westchester, an outpatient clinic in Westchester, NY. Dr. Puliafico also directs CUCARD Westchester's Anxiety Day Program, which provides daily treatment programming for adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and school avoidance.

Dr. Puliafico frequently presents on the topic of school avoidance and consults with schools and local agencies on supporting youth and families struggling with school avoidance. Dr. Puliafico is the co-author of "The OCD Workbook for Kids" and is a co-developer of the CALM Program for young children with anxiety.

Dr. Dina Nunziato

Clinical Director –

The Anxiety Institute

Dr. Dina Nunziato is the Clinical Director of the Anxiety Institute in Greenwich, Connecticut. They provide partial treatment programs and customizable outpatient services for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and school avoidance.

Dr. Nunziato has helped young adults in anxiety-related clinical and educational settings for twenty years. She specializes in Cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety and related disorders. Her research and publications include evidence-based mindfulness techniques to support anxiety management, academic success, and emotional well-being.

Most recently, Dr. Nunziato completed a doctoral dissertation entitled Embodied Learning Communities of Practice in Addressing College Student Anxiety.

Krystina Dawson

School Psychologist & Founder – Center for One Consulting

Krystina Dawson, M.S.Ed., is a certified school psychologist and special education administrator in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is experienced and dedicated to leading teams and building plans to reintegrate kids with school avoidance back into school.

She is an adjunct professor at Iona College, teaching graduate classes for mental health students and future school psychologists. Such as: "Consultation and Collaboration in Schools," "Social Psychology," "Psychological Aspects of Sexual Health," "Contemporary Issues in School Psychology," and "Exceptional Individuals."

Krystina is the founder of a private consulting agency, Center for One, which supports families and unique learners through the special education process.

Dr. John Piacentini

Director, Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES) Center – UCLA

Dr. Piacentini is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Chief of Child Psychology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and directs the Center for Child Anxiety, Resilience, Education and Support (CARES), and the Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Dr. Piacentini has authored over 300 scientific publications, including seven books, and has received numerous NIH and other grants assessing the etiology, assessment, and treatment of childhood anxiety, OCD, tic disorders, and adolescent suicide.

He is chair of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for the TLC Foundation for BFRBs, SAB Co-Chair for the Tourette Association of America, former president of the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) and the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.

Jayne Demsky

Founder, School Avoidance Alliance

For the past decade, Jayne has worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, The New Jersey Stigma-Free Movement, and the Children's Interagency Council on awareness, access, education, and interventions to improve children's mental healthcare. In 2014 she started the School Avoidance Alliance to help educate families and schools on school avoidance best practices and evidence-based solutions. The School Avoidance Alliance website, The School Avoidance Parent's Ultimate Guide to Working with Your School, Parent Peer-to-Peer Support group, School Avoidance Master Class for Parents, and School Avoidance Educator course have been recognized in the United States and globally as leading school avoidance resources. Jayne serves on the International Network for School Attendance's conference committee (INSA) and was a featured speaker at INSA's Making Waves in School Attendance Annual Conference in the Netherlands in October 2022.

Our Experts Work at These Prestigious Organizations

And a Few of Their Leadership Positions

Who Should Take This Course?

Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Students Back to School was created to educate multiple professionals in your school and district. We recommend educating as many of your school staff as possible to foster and support proper interventions and maintain successful returns to school.

Our course provides valuable guidance to assist the following professionals in your school.

Special education Directors

RTI team members

Special education teachers

Social Workers

School Nurses

General education teachers

School Psychologists

Attendance staff

School engagement staff

School Counselors

Principals

Student Assistance Counselors

Pupil Personnel Workers

Truancy officers

Elementary School Teachers

When your staff is educated on school avoidance, you prevent missteps that can cause student setbacks, waste precious time and energy, and leave you vulnerable to Child Find and FAPE litigation.

As seen in

Educational Institutions That Use Our Nationally Recognized Programs

Gaining a Complete Education on School Avoidance Saves Time, Money and Lives

This course content will help prevent a proliferation of demanding and consuming school avoidance cases.

This course will help you achieve early interventions which will reduce chronic absenteeism and entrenched cases of school avoidance.

This course empowers your school staff to use effective, best-practice, evidence-based responses when working with students, their families, and your colleagues.

When you intervene appropriately, you protect your school from FAPE litigation fees and costly out-of-district placements.

Everything Presented is Based on Research-Backed Data and Real-World Insights from Families, Clinicians, and School Professionals

  • You will take a deep dive into all components of school avoidance so you and your school team will immediately be prepared to help students and their families.

  • Discover how our experts use first-line treatments of CBT with exposure therapy, In-home strategies and responses, and school and home collaboration to help their clients get back to school.

  • Learn step-by-step from a school psychologist who leads a team that gets kids with school avoidance back to school.

  • PLUS, detailed coverage of school avoidance facts, misconceptions, and guidance from worldwide school attendance researchers and clinicians.

  • Explore qualifications and interpretations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 through the lens of school avoidance and special education.

Get the Course,

Everything You Need to know

to Get Your Students Back to School

Don't miss this opportunity to

educate and empower your staff to

help your chronically absent students back to school

11 modules with several lessons in each module

5+ hours of content

48 Lessons

Each lesson varies from 5-15 minutes, so the course is digestible and flexible to conform to the viewer's schedule and time constraints with 24/7 access

Upon Course Completion

Each professional will receive:

  • A personalized certificate of complettion for school avoidance training from the School Avoidance Alliance.

  • Course documentation to submit to your governing body for CE (Continuing Education) Credits.

Our school avoidance training will set your school teams and families up for success, building systemic improvements while reducing absenteeism.


Don’t waste another day not being sure how to help your chronically absent students back to school.

Copyright 2023 School Avoidance Alliance