Credit: Dr. Doug Newton, the Chief Medical Officer at SonderMind School avoidance, or what some call school refusal, is definitely not a new phenomenon. As a practicing child psychiatrist, I saw this all the time. And, now in a post-COVID world it is even worse. In the past we would see school refusal peak in August or September, as the student was anticipating going back to school. It was the time I would work with families on prevention and early intervention techniques. But now, I am hearing school anxiety and avoidant behaviors are happening more often throughout the school year.  Child and teen school avoidance is almost always associated with anxiety and specifically social anxiety in teens and separation anxiety…