"Too Much," "Too Distracted," "Too Sensitive": What Happens When School Isn't Built for Your Kid

Laurie Groh, MS LPC SAS with Jori Broidy (Director, Open Wings Learning Community, Milwaukee) and Stacey Glasenapp (child therapist, Shoreside Therapies) · 2026-08-11

Most kids walk into school excited. Somewhere along the way, for a lot of them, it turns into "I don't want to go" or "I just get yelled at." This episode is about the kids who get labeled too much, too distracted or too sensitive, and what changes when a school is designed to believe in them instead.

Show notes

My guests are Jori Broidy, director of Open Wings Learning Community's Milwaukee campus, a school built around neurodiversity, and Stacey Glasenapp, who works with children here at Shoreside Therapies.

"Why would I call you?"

Jori told a story that sums up the whole conversation. A mom whose child had just started at Open Wings asked, on about day two, why the school hadn't called her. Her old school called all the time. Jori's answer: we don't do that. Kids are going to have meltdowns. The difference is that they struggle, they move on, and they jump back into their day. It's part of learning.

That flipped something for the parent too. School stopped being a thing where you sit by the phone.

What a school built around the whole child looks like

Six kids to two teachers in every room, and each child paired with a learning partner at the same social-emotional and academic level, which does not necessarily mean the same age. Jori's comparison: as adults, we don't ask someone's age before we become friends.

The day is highly routine, because that's what kids need. Physical movement first thing, then play, then a kid-led morning meeting with visual schedules and a check-in on which zone of regulation each child is in. If you're not in the green zone, that's okay. What do you need? Reading and math, recess twice a day all year, lunch together as a community, then writing, science, social studies and sensory time. Wobble chairs, kick bands, sitting on the floor. Kids aren't meant to sit in desks all day.

And a lot of field trips. Jori has noticed that parents of neurodivergent kids often avoid taking them out into the world because they're scared of what will happen. The school's answer is: come with us. All kids deserve to see the world.

Behavior is communication

Jori has spent 19 years in education, mostly drawn to kids who struggle with behavior. Her view is that behavior is communication. They're trying to tell us something they can't say directly.

In a class of 25 to 30, a kid who is lost isn't going to raise a hand and say so. They go silent, or they act out. In a room of six or seven, it's easier to say what you need, and a teacher can notice when one kid is picking on another before it becomes a pattern. As Stacey put it, how can you learn if you don't feel safe?

Stacey has spent 20 years helping families get IEPs, and she's been through it as a parent herself. Even with her background, it was a struggle. Many parents don't know what to ask for, and they're being asked to trust strangers with a kid who already has extra needs. Her point, and Jori's: this isn't a knock on our local schools, which are great. Some kids just need something different, and that's okay.

What you can do at any school

Not every family can get to Open Wings, and Jori was clear about that. Her suggestions for a traditional school:

Communicate. Sit down with the teacher and the principal and say, I want to work together.
Mirror the school's routines at home. If the teacher has a call-and-response that gets your kid's attention, use it when you can't get them in from the yard.
Send a note in the morning. A small notebook where you write "rough night" or "nervous about X" gives the teacher context for the whole day. The shoes-on meltdown is the one I hear about most. A heads-up means the teacher isn't guessing.
Build a frustration bag. Parent and child fill a small bag with five things the kid can do when frustrated (a book, a fidget, blocks). One goes in the cubby, an identical one stays at home. Teacher points at the bag, kid goes. No extra work for the teacher, and the same tool in both places helps it become automatic.

Let the therapist come to school

Open Wings welcomes outside therapists into the building, whether that's speech, OT, ABA or mental health therapy. Jori's reasoning: the 4 p.m. appointment is hard to get, and by then kids are exhausted. A therapist gets the best of your child at 10 a.m. Parents often assume a school would never allow this. It's worth asking.

Key takeaways

Behavior is communication. A meltdown is a kid telling you something they can't say yet.
Kids can't learn when they don't feel safe. Small groups and predictable routines help.
Grouping by age isn't the only option. Learning partners at the same level matter more.
You are your child's best advocate. Use your therapist, your friends and other educators, and know there are options.
Small, mirrored tools like a morning note or a frustration bag work at any school.

If this one hit close to home

If you're parenting a kid who is struggling in a system that wasn't made for them, Stacey Glasenapp works with kids, and with moms of kids with special needs, at Shoreside Therapies in Wisconsin and online in several other states. Our intake coordinator will help you find the right fit, even if it isn't us.

More on this topic: Mental Health Tools hub · What If School Believed in Your Kid? · Why Wait for the Call? Open Wings · Infant Mental Health and When to Start Child Therapy

This episode is for education and entertainment. It is not therapy and does not create a therapeutic relationship. Hosted by Laurie Groh, MS, LPC, SAS.