16 yrs. Grade 10

Our daughter always did well in school until grade 8. She was in French Immersion, loved projects, and did well in most subjects. She hardly ever missed a day of school. One year, she got an award for perfect attendance. We noticed that she excelled in certain things like projects, often going over and above what was asked. In grade 8, things changed. Workload increased, more teachers making more demands. Suddenly, she couldn’t make all the assignments perfect the way she wanted. It was harder to get her to school. Grade 9 was more challenging and, although she made it through first semester, it was more and more difficult to get her to school. Second semester was worse. If she missed classes, she would feel too far behind to go back, and this perpetuated the problem. We tried online learning, but that was difficult to manage. By now, she had an ADHD diagnosis. In grade 10, she had dropped out by October and never went back. We tried Alternative program – that lasted about three weeks. She put a lot of effort into the work but attended only two days. We feel the school did not take us seriously when we met with concerns, including attendance – in their eyes, she hadn’t missed enough days to be concerned. They have many other students with bigger issues, and our daughter just wasn’t that big a deal. As time went on, they tried to help, but it wasn’t easy to get her back into the school. Now she wants to start fresh in a different school in a different town, but that doesn’t solve the underlying problems with her learning style and needs.