Rapid Assessment, Consultation, and Immediate First Steps

Abstract

Chapter 2 first offers an overview of methods to assess youths with school attendance problems. These methods target youth who are just beginning to refuse school and/or have scattered absences, a few skipped classes, recurrent tardiness, premature departures from school during the day, excessive crying or resistance going to school, and noncompliance regarding school attendance, in addition to more subtle behaviors such as frequent requests to leave class, visits to the school nurse, or escalating distress about attending school. An emphasis is placed on time-sensitive and highly efficient ways to gather substantial information about a youth’s school attendance problems and related variables. Focus is on the crucial interview questions and topics to cover in a short period of time. The discussion also covers consultation and immediate first intervention steps, which co-occur with evaluation in one session in many of these cases.