Exploring the School Attendance Crisis: School Refusal or Truancy?

About this episode

The episode discusses the escalating school attendance crisis and features Dr. Dennis Lefevre, who shares insights on evaluations and interventions to address the issue.

Whether you’re ready for Spring Break or still have a few weeks until Spring Break, the reality is that there isn’t much of the school year left. There are many assessments and IEP meetings that need to be scheduled now. In today’s episode, we are talking with a wonderful guest, really getting into the trenches of evaluations and the escalating attendance crisis of the last few years. Join us to learn more! Dr. Dennis Lefevre recently served as the Executive Director of Student Support Services in a small, high-performing school district in southern CA. Prior to that role, he worked in various capacities in public, non-public, and private school settings with thousands of preschool, elementary, and secondary students. He had a front-row seat to the unfolding attendance crisis and became increasingly frustrated by the lack of ownership among school, home, and community. He is now piloting a new kind of evaluation that is an intensive data collection process designed to lower the threshold enough to get students back on campus. As an educational psychologist in private practice, Dr. Dennis started an agency called Back at School , which offers consultations, advocacy, targeted data…

People in this episode

Guest: Dr. Dennis Lefevre

Topics covered

• school attendance crisis
• school refusal
• truancy
• evaluations
• IEP meetings
• educational psychology

Keywords

• school attendance
• truancy
• school refusal
• evaluations
• educational psychologist
• data collection
• student support services

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Back at School

Places: southern CA

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