My Child New Beginnings can't go to school for three different reasons, and each one has its own fix. The most common one is a missing school backpack. The second is a dialogue choice that looks like a bug but is not. The third is that the child is genuinely frightened, and that one needs handling, not forcing.
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My Child New Beginnings can't go to school: the three causes
The child has no backpack yet. The school step needs one, and without it the child cannot be sent to school.
The child refuses to start the school sequence. Once the game says it is time for school, every other interaction replies that the child has to go to school and nothing seems to happen.
The child is anxious or frightened about school. She says she does not want to go because of what other people might say, and the game expects you to listen and reassure rather than push her out of the door.
Cause one: there is no backpack
Buy the school backpack in the village shop before the first school day: open the shop, go to the Clothes tab, page through the list until you find the backpack marked with a book icon, and pay. It costs 500 coins in most cases, and a shop tutorial also records a cheaper 200-coin backpack turning up in the same rotating list, so read the price tag before you pay. The full buying steps are here.
Cause two: the dialogue choice that unlocks it
This one looks like a bug but is not. Once the game says it is time for school, every other interaction replies that the child has to go to school and nothing seems to happen. The step that unblocks it is a dialogue choice:
Pick the line "We need to talk about school".
The child may answer "let's do something else" anyway. That is expected - the choice is still the required one.
Leave the dialogue and go and do one small task, for example water the plant pot or push the swing in the garden.
Come back and interact with the child again. The school sequence starts now.
Cause three: the child is frightened
When the child says she does not want to go to school because of what other people might say, the game expects you to listen and reassure rather than push her out of the door. Panic attacks and before-school anxiety are handled the same way, with breathing and counting 3-2-1 to bring the child down.
She has to trust you before she will talk about the bullying at school, and trust is built with playing, drawing, reading stories together and helping with homework. That is where the bullying arc is handled in full, and the daily care that builds trust is here.
When the step stays frozen
If the school step stays frozen after all of that, update the mobile build. Version 1.0.002 fixed dialogue getting stuck when leaving school, version 1.0.004 fixed a softlock in the "Secret" storyline on a Thursday morning where the child could not be walked to school, and version 1.0.011 fixed chapters that could not be unlocked, which blocked the story from progressing.
On the Steam edition the whole first book is unlocked from the start, so none of the chapter-unlock problems apply there. When the whole game stops responding is a different problem, covered here.
FAQ
What stops the child from starting school?
Three things: there is no backpack, a dialogue answer has not been chosen yet, or the child is too frightened to go. Each one has its own fix, and the backpack is the usual reason.
Do I choose a boy or a girl?
You adopt one of two preteens, Karin or Klaus. The story follows the two of you two years after a series of traumatic events, as you move into a proper home in a new village in Norway.