{"id":386,"date":"2017-05-18T10:57:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T14:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=386"},"modified":"2026-10-29T12:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:14:46","slug":"sleep-disorders-truancy-and-student-needs-a-complicated-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/sleep-disorders-truancy-and-student-needs-a-complicated-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleep Disorders, Truancy and Student Needs: A Complicated Mix"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Sleep%20Disorders%2C%20Truancy%20and%20Student%20Needs%3A%20A%20Complicated%20Mix\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px; float: right;\" title=\"student sleeping\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/nltr\/img\/sleeping.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"126\" \/>I have a student with a sleep disorder and emotional issues.<\/p>\n<p>How do the compulsory attendance laws and a student with special education needs intertwine?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Good question. All states have compulsory attendance laws. I am not aware of exceptions for children with disabilities, but suggest you contact your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yellowpagesforkids.com\/help\/seas.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">State Department of Education <\/span><\/a> to find out if your state has any exceptions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are the sleep issues a recent problem?<\/li>\n<li>What do the parents say?<\/li>\n<li>Is the child&#8217;s doctor aware of the frequent absences and their impact on his education? <!--more--><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In some cases, the child&#8217;s doctor may recommend special treatment for a specific period of time, for example, when the doctor is trying different medications and the child&#8217;s sleep is disrupted.<\/p>\n<p>In other cases, schools let kids slide, which does not help. <strong>Kids with emotional and behavioral problems are at very high risk for dropping out. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If children don&#8217;t attend school regularly, they cannot learn what they need to know to handle life after school.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The child&#8217;sfrequent absences trigger responsibilities for the IEP team.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The IEP team is required to review and revise an IEP &#8220;to address any lack of expected progress&#8221; and &#8220;other matters.&#8221; A child with a sleep disorder who often misses school is probably not making expected progress, so it&#8217;s time to revisit the IEP.<\/li>\n<li>The IEP team must also consider providing related services for &#8220;a child whose behavior impedes the child&#8217;s learning &#8230; positive behavioral interventions and supports, and other strategies to address that behavior.&#8221; Clearly, this child&#8217;s behavior is impeding his learning. The IEP team needs to meet to devise new interventions, supports and strategies to address the behavior.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If the child is not attending school because of depression and other emotional issues, the IEP team needs to meet and decide how to modify or revise the IEP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The team should be creative and involve the child&#8217;s doctor and therapist, parent(s), and, if possible, the child.<\/strong> The child may need related services, including counseling or other assistance.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Normal Adolescent Sleep Patterns<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As a group, adolescents are notoriously difficult to wake up in the morning. This isn&#8217;t laziness or depression; it is simply part of normal human development. During adolescence, circadian clocks shift toward late-night behavior. Boys tend to grow out of this around age 20, and girls a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p>For these reasons, experts in neurology and chronobiology make a strong case for opening high schools later and experimenting with curriculum and exam timing. This could better match the educational system&#8217;s requirements with students&#8217; capabilities. (For more about biological clocks and sleep rhythms, read <a href=\"http:\/\/judson.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/04\/21\/guest-column-larks-owls-and-hummingbirds\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Larks, Owls and Hummingbirds<\/span><\/a> by Leon Kreitzman, co-author of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rhythms-Life-Biological-Clocks-Control\/dp\/0300105746\/ref=nosim\/thespecialedadvo\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>Rhythms of Life<\/em><\/span><\/a> with Russell Foster, a neuroscientist at Oxford.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>American Academy of Pediatrics Recommendations<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Studies strongly suggest that adolescents who don\u2019t get enough sleep often suffer physical and mental health problems, an increased risk of automobile accidents, and a <em>decline in academic performance<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In a <span style=\"color: #000080;\">2014 policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that <\/span>middle and high schools delay the start of class to 8:30 a.m. or later. This aligns school schedules with adolescents&#8217; biological sleep rhythms, whose sleep-wake cycles begin to shift up to two hours later at the start of puberty.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Compulsory Attendance Laws and Truancy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If the school labels the child truant under compulsory attendance laws, developmental or emotional problems become legal problems. If the child is judged &#8220;truant,&#8221; little is likely to improve, and the child is more likely to drop out of school.<\/p>\n<p>The question about whether to use compulsory attendance laws also depends on how the juvenile justice system in your area views kids with emotional and behavioral problems. Some juvenile judges are staunch advocates for children and want to help. Others blame the kid for emotional problems, which isn&#8217;t helpful.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for caring about the kids!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a student with a sleep disorder and emotional issues. How do the compulsory attendance laws and a student with special education needs intertwine? Good question. All states have <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/sleep-disorders-truancy-and-student-needs-a-complicated-mix\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,1370,1363,1365],"tags":[53,343,1299,344,118,121],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accommodations-modifications","category-discipline-behavior","category-discrimination-section-504-adaa","category-medical-health-care","tag-accommodations","tag-compulsory-attendance-laws","tag-ieps","tag-sleep-disorders","tag-truancy","tag-unique-needs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27819,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/27819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}