How old are they? I know in bipolar disorder and probably some other types of mental illness school attendance is a problem. In two books, The Bipolar Child and Bipolar Kids, both written by psychs and parents, there is a complete chapter dedicated to school attendance! What you need to do is with the help of your therapist and the school guidance counselor (as well as a few others at the school level) is come up with IEP (Individual Education Plan) which will address attendance due to diagnosed mental illness, and any other issues they have. It will prevent you from getting into trouble when they miss school. No amount of punishment or reward has worked in the long term to keep our daughter attending regularly. She now has an IEP and is in a small private school where the work is independent and self-paced. She is very happy there, or I guess I should say, much more tolerant of this school than her huge public HS!

Good luck!

Nancy