School Challenges

School Challenges

Are you getting frequent calls or emails from your child’s school with concerns about their behavior or school performance?  Is your child constantly unhappy with school and not motivated to do their homework? Is your child’s grades declining? 

Children spend the majority of their days in school for most of the year.  Parents trust their child’s school is a safe and accepting environment that will meet their child’s needs.  When your child or teen seems unmotivated or disinterested, having social difficulties or not reaching their potential, steps can be taken to identify the source of the problems and develop effective strategies and interventions.  Our team of child and adolescent specialists have significant experience and can be hands on in helping you collaborate and work effectively with the school.  We can guide you in determining when an evaluation in indicated and how to implement and suggest  important parenting strategies to address the issues. We help children and teens develop essential skills to be successful across all their environments including school.

Our team can help with:

  • Individual therapy to help with social skills, assertiveness and improving confidence
  • Phone calls to teachers and school counselors to obtain useful information for interventions
  • School observations of a student in their natural environment
  • Family therapy and parenting sessions to reduce and eliminate power struggles
  • Behavior therapy to increase motivation
  • Guidance through the 504 and Individual Education Plan (IEP) process including developing a plan
  • Help in educating the school on child’s special needs and with creation of interventions and supports
  • Advocacy to have a student receive a free school evaluation
  • Creation of behavioral modification plans with school
  • Implementation of Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approaches with school
  • Referrals to exceptional community resources when a private evaluation is indicated
School Challenges

If your child is having challenges around school, our team of therapists can help. If you would more information on how we can help guide you in supporting your child or teens with school concerns, please call (248) 851-5437 or text (248) 871-7622.

Frequently Asked Questions

Making connections at school can be a challenge for many children, and our therapists are here to help your child become more socially and emotionally engaged. A strong therapeutic relationship and consistent time in sessions working on strategies to improve social-emotional development will relieve some of that emotional distress and give your child the confidence they need to broaden their social horizons.

Your child’s school guidance counselor or school social worker might be able to help your child at school, in the moment, with shorter-term problems that allow for quicker solutions. However, if you believe your child would benefit from working with a therapist longer-term, CFSC welcomes you to give us a call and explore your family’s situation with our intake specialist. From there, our team will recommend an intake assessment, where one of our highly skilled therapists will be able to dive in with you on the benefits of consistent, individualized therapy.

Yes! Our therapists know that a strong working relationship between parent(s), teacher(s), and the child’s clinician ensures well-rounded support for the child and their family as a whole. As parents/guardians, we ask you to sign a release that gives your child’s therapist permission to consult with the teacher(s), and from there all parties can stay informed about your child’s therapeutic progress and how it’s impacting both school and home life. We are also available for school meetings and to provide support for school.

Sometimes, an incident occurs on school grounds that raises concerns about a child’s safety and emotional well-being. These incidents can indicate that your child needs ongoing support with their mental health, and our therapists are trained and ready to assess any immediate risks. From there, the therapist will make recommendations for ongoing therapy services.

If you are ready to make a change for the better: