The School Can't Experience
For parents and caregivers of young people who struggle to attend school, and related education and health professionals. We share experiences and insights into what is going on for our young people and how we can offer support.
Episodes
Judith came across School Can't Australia on the internet and suddenly, something that had puzzled her for over sixty years finally had a name.
Now 66, Judith grew up missing roughly half her schooling. Nobody called it School Can't. Nobody really knew what to do. And for most of her adult life, she'd assumed her experience was unique until she stumbled across the School Can't community and realised how familiar ...
We've just passed 50 episodes of The School Can't Experience — and many of those have been lived experience episodes: families coming on to tell us what School Can't has actually been like for them in real life.
In going back through all of those episodes to prepare this one, something became very clear. Different families, different states, different children, different journeys — but so many of the same themes appea...
Play and filial therapist Dr. Kate Renshaw joins host Leisa Reichelt to explore how play therapy can support children and families experiencing School Can’t, especially when kids struggle with traditional talk-based therapies.
Kate describes why play therapy is developmentally sensitive and how the family-based approach, filial therapy can be powerful for both parent and child. She discusses creating consistent, relationally safe s...
In this week’s episode, Sydney mum, Jodie, shares her lived experience of School Can’t with host Leisa Reichelt. Jodie’s teenage daughter experienced a sudden mental health and School Can’t crisis after a house move in February 2025, following earlier anxiety, social struggles and bullying.
As her daughter became severely dysregulated, ran away, and experienced suicidal ideation, Jodie describes intense pressure from scho...
Dr Billy Garvey joins us on the School Can’t Experience Podcast to discuss why it shouldn’t be considered normal for children to struggle at school, and how the education system often fails to meet kids’ emotional and developmental needs.
Together with host Leisa Reichelt, they explore early intervention and trusting parental instincts, the harms of dismissing distress as “just a phase,” and why trauma and bullying don’t build resi...
Lucette, a mum of two neurodivergent girls, education advocate and author, speaks with our host, Leisa Reichelt about a School Can’t journey that began as “Daycare Can’t” and “Kinder Can’t.” Lucette describes years of difficult drop-offs, restraint collapse, and escalating distress—including absconding and family crisis—before her eldest child, ‘Big A’, was identified as autistic and ADHD with high sensory needs, and the family beg...
This week we welcome Laura, a nurse and mum of three in Victoria, to share her family’s experience supporting her 15-year-old daughter, Mimi, through ongoing School Can’t.
Laura describes Mimi’s early anxiety, neurodivergence, and how returning to school after COVID intensified distress, leading to escalating attendance struggles in high school, especially without close friendships and with limited school wellbeing capacity.
She ex...
This week we welcomed Jessica, an OT and mother of two neurodivergent children, to share her lived experience of School Can’t. Jess’s eldest child experienced early anxiety and separation difficulties through escalating distress in primary school.
Jess describes navigating borderline ADHD diagnosis, later recognising broader neurodivergence, trialling and stopping stimulants due to aggression on comedown, and finding both supportiv...
Professor Linda Graham (Queensland University of Technology), Director of the QUT Centre for Inclusive Education, joins host, Leisa Reichelt to discuss research showing that universally accessible teaching and assessment improves outcomes for neurodivergent students and benefits all learners.
Professor Graham shares her own experience of being pushed out of school, her pathway to university, and her commitment to changing education...
Host Leisa Reichelt is joined by 18-year-old Althea and her mum, Claire to talk about about Althea’s School Can’t experience through high school in Melbourne.
After early positive years at school COVID stuck, meaning much of Years 7–8 were done on Zoom, disrupting connection and engagement with school. By Years 9–10 sensory overwhelm was escalating but getting accommodations involved battles, meanwhile academic pressures and worse...
Rachel, a School Can’t mum and occupational therapist, joins host Leisa Reichelt to talk about her family’s experience supporting her child through severe school distress and School Can’t.
Rachel describes years of intense support, including leaving work for three years and spending hours daily on school grounds, difficulties with school responses, and the impact on the whole family during COVID, before transitioning to home educat...
Leisa Reichelt speaks with autism researcher and clinical psychologist Dawn Adams (OTARC, La Trobe University) about what the latest School Can’t research is showing.
Dawn shares international insights on how neuro-normative school policy and assessment can drive school distress, and why lived experience and co-designed research matter. She outlines OTARC findings that child anxiety can predict later school non-attendance years in ...
Psychologist Emma-Rose Parsons joins host, Leisa Reichelt to discuss how Individual Learning Plans (ILPs/IEPs) can become practical, neurodiversity-affirming tools rather than “tick-the-box” paperwork.
Emma-Rose explains ILPs should document reasonable adjustments, support equal access to curriculum and school life, and help schools meet obligations under relevant disability and equal opportunity legislation—ideally through true co...
This week we bring you a special live recording of the Lived Experience panel from the launch of the 'Understanding School Can’t' ebook. Featuring previous podcast guests Diana, Mark, Simone, and Yani, the discussion ranges draws from their personal journeys and explores the challenges they faced with School Can’t, and the wisdom they wish they had known earlier.
The panel offers powerful reflections on the impo...
In the first episode of the 2026 School Can't Experience Podcast, host Leisa Reichelt discusses the challenges 'School Can't,' with the Directors of School Can't Australia, Tiffany Westphal and Louise Rogers and discuss some of the content of the new ebook, Understanding School Can’t published by School Can’t Australia in January.
Download a copy of the Understanding School Can’t ebook here: https://www.scho...
You're invited to attend the virtual launch of School Can't Australia's new ebook.
Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/resource-launch-understanding-school-can-t-a-guide-for-parents-and-carers
Please help us plan content for next years episodes - send your feedback and ideas to schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com or send us a text.
School Can’t Australia Facebook Community - https:/...
Welcome to the School Can't Experience Podcast hosted by Leisa Reichelt. In this episode, Wendy, a high school teacher and foster parent, shares her story of caring for her foster son Jax, who has struggled with school attendance for several years.
Wendy shares the various challenges they have faced with the education system, their experiences with foster care, and their journey towards finding an appropriate learning environme...
In this episode, host Leisa Reichelt is joined by Tanya Valentin, a neuro-affirming family coach from New Zealand.
Tanya shares her journey of discovering her neurodivergence and her family's experiences with school burnout and autism. They discuss the challenges, grief, and shame faced by parents, and the transformative power of finding new paths to education and parenting.
Tanya also talks about the resources and support ava...
In this episode of the School Can't Experience Podcast, host Leisa Reichelt is joined by Pavlina McMaster, Coordinator at the Home Education Network to shed light on some common myths about Home Education, including:
- Myth #1:Home Education is a last resort
- Myth #2: I have to work so don’t have time to Home Educate
- Myth #3: I’m not smart/educated enough to teach my kids
- Myth #4: Home Education restricts our kids future opportu...
In this episode of the School Can't Experience Podcast, host Leisa Reichelt speaks with Kate Broderick, a dual qualified speech therapist and occupational therapist, about the transition from behaviorism to a relationship-based approach in education.
Kate shares her personal journey as a parent of neurodivergent children and discusses the importance of building trust-based relationships to create safer and more inclusive learn...
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