Although many youngsters refuse to attend school at one time or anothe
r, school refusal is largely misunderstood by parents, educators, and
therapists. Because youngsters who refuse school present with so many
different behaviors, finding a treatment procedure that works well for
all cases is difficult. As a result, many therapists have been forced
to rely on their own makeshift approaches to address this problem. In
this article, we present a way of viewing this population systematica
lly from the perspective of two clinicians who are familiar with these
clients. To illustrate this perspective, we rely on a description of
school refusal, our clinic, assessment and treatment options, and thre
e clinical cases. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.