A review of the literature regarding school refusal was conducted. It was found that the term School Refusal Behavior has gone through many changes. These changes encompass nomenclature, etiology, and treatment. The names used to describe the behavior of school refusal have ranged from truancy in the 1930s to School Refusal Behavior in the 1990s. Other terms have been applied, and are still currently applied today, such as Social Phobia. Currently, a functional definition of school refusal is most often used, and syncs up with recommended treatments depending on the function the refusal represents.