Parent Coaching for School Refusal

Why Steady Steps?

Steady Steps Education offers one-to-one coaching for parents and carers of children experiencing school non-attendance. Sessions run for 30 minutes ($95) or 60 minutes ($190), conducted online. 

The aim is to build your capacity to engage with your child and support a return to school. The work is structured around three areas that consistently shape how non-attendance plays out: the child themselves, the family environment, and the school environment.

How The Work Unfolds

1.

First Session

The first session is a conversation about your current situation. We'll cover when the non-attendance started and how it's progressed, your child's experience of school, family and home-school dynamics, academic history, what's already been tried, and what you're hoping to move toward.

2.

Between the First and Second Sessions

You, your child, and the school each complete a short functional assessment. These are emailed to you ahead of time. The information helps build a clearer picture of what's driving the non-attendance and the factors contributing to it across the three areas above. From there, we develop a structured return-to-school plan aligned with your goals.

3.

Second Session

We walk through the proposed approach together, with adjustments based on your feedback.

4.

Subsequent Sessions

Subsequent sessions follow the plan, working through one intervention at a time. Each session typically includes reflection on the previous week's work, an explanation of the next intervention and why it's effective, how to put it into practice, and a between-session guide to support you through it.

Steady Steps Education works with parents v3

Who This Is For

Steady Steps Education works with parents and carers of primary and secondary school-aged children who are struggling to attend school regularly. That might mean full disengagement, partial attendance, or your child experiencing real distress about going to school even when they're still getting there. 

Early support matters. School non-attendance is harder to shift the longer it goes on, and intervening earlier means working with patterns that haven't yet become entrenched. 

This may be a good fit if:

Your child is missing school more than feels manageable
Mornings have become the hardest part of the day
The school's standard supports aren't moving things forward
You're waiting for clinical support and need somewhere to start
Your child is already engaged with a psychologist or paediatrician, and you want practical, day-to-day help alongside that
You want someone who understands schools from the inside helping you communicate with yours

What Support May Include

The work is organised around the same three areas that shape how non-attendance plays out: your child, your home, and the school.

Working With You As A Parent

Parent-focused coaching gives you tools to notice and adjust how you interact with your child, in ways that reduce the chance of inadvertently reinforcing anxiety. It also builds your understanding of what schools can and should be doing, so you can advocate for it confidently.

Individual Child

Cognitive behavioural strategies you can use with your child as a preventive and protective layer. This includes shifting unhelpful thinking patterns, regulating emotions, managing anxiety and low mood, building social skills, and strengthening the parent-child relationship.

Family & Home Environment

Routines and sleep, communication patterns, problem-solving, emotional expression, family harmony, parental wellbeing (including parents' own anxiety, low mood, or guilt), parental self-efficacy, and navigating significant transitions like job changes or separation.

School Environment

Supporting school-day routines, planned graduated return where appropriate, what to raise in school meetings (case formulation, return plans, workload and timetable adjustments, monitoring), and the difference between individual in-school supports and whole-class supports your child might benefit from.

Coordination With Others Involved

Where useful, we'll work alongside the other people supporting your child. That might include teachers and school staff, your GP, or a treating psychologist or paediatrician.

Specialist Support Tailored to Your Child’s Journey.