Consider a student like Sam. At 15, he is returning to mainstream school after several months away due to anxiety and depression. He feels overwhelmed by noise, social demands, and academic expectations. His family are uncertain about Sam returning to school, health services are planning discharge, and the school is asking about attendance and assessments. Despite everyone’s best intentions, transitions like Sam’s can still break down. This session encourages participants to consider the broader systems at play when a young person recovering from illness returns to school, rather than just looking at the individual and asking ‘Why can’t you cope?’ Using Bronfenbrenner’s Socioecological Model, the presentation explores all systems influencing a student's transition, including the individual, family/whānau, peers, school environment, health systems, and wider structural pressures such as assessment demands and attendance expectations. This session is designed to be reflective and thought-provoking. Participants will consider a number of guiding questions and discussion prompts that can be used within their own settings including: - Shifting from an individual-only focus to considering other systems that contribute toward successful transition outcomes - The role of educators and hospital or health school teachers within and across systems - Identifying which layers of the ecosystem offer the greatest opportunity for us to strengthen and protect the transition process - Understanding how different systems influence decision-making and collaboration Through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's model and by sharing everyday practice, this session aims to deepen understanding and support more informed, collaborative transition planning.