The growing public awareness around mental health is in many ways a positive development. When mental health issues are less stigmatized, students are more likely to seek the care they need.
But some educators worry that the pendulum has swung too far in that direction, and that students are too readily missing school when they feel anxious, blue, or any of the other crummy鈥攂ut normal鈥攆eelings that come with adolescence.
This matters because not only are students losing valuable instructional time, but they鈥檙e also not learning the emotional resilience they鈥檒l need for life, said Matthew Sloane, the principal of Middleburgh Junior/Senior High School in Middleburgh, N.Y. He talks to his students about 鈥渉ealthy anxiety鈥濃�攈ow someone feels before a big test or when they鈥檙e in an argument with a friend.
鈥淚n school, specifically middle school and high school, we want students to experience anxiety because it鈥檚 in a controlled environment,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e supported, they have their parents, teachers, [and] support staff here. And, you know, anxieties are going to happen throughout their life. Change is going happen throughout their life.鈥�
Mental health days raise concerns about chronic absenteeism
This issue of students missing school for mental health reasons is top of mind for many school and district leaders right now as chronic absenteeism rates soar in many areas across the country. Chronic absenteeism is generally defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year.
There鈥檚 been a convergence of messaging in the past few years that may have led parents and students to conclude that skipping school can help improve their mental health.
At least a dozen states in recent years have passed laws allowing students to take excused absences for mental health reasons.
Meanwhile, the U.S. surgeon general called the state of kids鈥� mental health the 鈥渃risis of our time鈥� last year. And in 2021, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Children鈥檚 Hospital Association declared the state of child and adolescent mental health a national emergency.
Kent Pekel, the superintendent of Rochester public schools in Minnesota, added that the school closures during the pandemic sent an unintended message that showing up to class wasn鈥檛 necessarily important.
鈥淲e鈥檙e finding that there鈥檚 a lot of misconceptions about how important it is to be in school鈥�'if I didn鈥檛 come to school at all in the pandemic, why do I urgently have to keep coming to school now?鈥欌�� he said during a recent webinar on adolescent mental health hosted by the Frameworks Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies strategic communications around social issues.
Media coverage about mental health issues fuels parents鈥� fears
The deluge of media coverage around the youth mental health crisis is confusing for parents, too, said Matthew Strittmatter, the principal of Elizabeth Davis Middle School in Chesterfield County, Va. He thinks some parents are overreacting to their children鈥檚 emotions out of fear of doing the wrong thing.
鈥淧arents are trying to navigate all of what they believe to be correct in the moment,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 a lot of things on the news and social media that shows the outcry of what mental health, and a lack of mental health awareness, can lead to. Depression and suicide rates, those things are certainly at the tops of everybody鈥檚 minds, especially [parents].鈥�
But experts have been warning that skipping school to address mental health challenges isn鈥檛 necessarily the answer, especially if a student is going to be home alone unsupervised because a parent or caregiver must work. If a child is feeling anxious or depressed鈥攐r even just a bit down鈥攖hey shouldn鈥檛 be left at home by themselves, experts say.
鈥淎lmost any psychologist or clinical psychologist who works with children and youth will say that the answer to school refusal is not keeping them out of school, that is absolutely not the way to go,鈥� said Andrew Fuligni, a psychology professor and director of the Adolescent Development Lab at UCLA, during the Frameworks鈥� webinar.
It鈥檚 developmentally important for adolescents to have strong emotional experiences, whether they are good or difficult ones, he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not that we want to dampen strong emotions, we want to support adolescents鈥� ability to work with those emotions to think about what they mean and how to regulate them and put them to good uses,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ometimes we should be absolutely outraged by something that鈥檚 happening in the school or in the community.鈥�
Why schools are struggling with how to address mental health days
But while district and school leaders might be aware that this is a problem in their schools鈥攖hat too many kids are staying home because they鈥檙e conflating the normal developmental challenges of adolescence with mental health problems鈥攈ow big of an issue it is and what to do about it is much harder to pin down, said Pekel.
The problem also presents a difficult tightrope for school and district leaders to walk, he said. Pushing kids who are maybe anxious about a test to come to school, while being considerate of kids who have clinically diagnosed anxiety and might need to stay home are two different scenarios.
Pekel said he鈥檚 seeing students use the concept of taking a mental health day as a get-out-of-school-free card. At the same time, he doesn鈥檛 want to approach students鈥� and parents鈥� concerns with skepticism, he said. 鈥淧art of the paradox for us is that we have a growing set of resources at our schools to help address that, so staying home may not be the effective thing to deal with a kid who is struggling with mental health.鈥�
To address this conundrum, schools should talk to students and parents about the difference between feeling anxious about an upcoming test or over social drama among peers versus a diagnosed mental health condition like anxiety or depression, said Fuligni and Pekel.
School leaders also need to be proactive in meeting students鈥� needs, said Sloane. He makes sure he is aware of all the students in his building who have a clinical diagnosis for a mental illness, but his school also has additional supports in place, such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (or ACEs) Assessment, to identify students who might be struggling but haven鈥檛 officially received a diagnosis.
Students need to feel safe and welcome at school
Finally, schools also need to make sure they鈥檙e creating an environment that supports students鈥� mental health, and one that makes them feel safe and welcome at school, said Keri Rodrigues, the president of the National Parents Union.
While a student might not have an official diagnosis for a mental health disorder, if they鈥檙e suffering from feelings of anxiety and depression because they鈥檙e getting bullied or harassed at school, it鈥檚 not unreasonable for parents to let their kids stay home, Rodrigues said.
She added that it鈥檚 easier to blame parents for students missing school rather than transform classrooms. But schools should resist the temptation to try to shift the onus for the chronic absenteeism problem onto parents.
鈥淚f we haven鈥檛 done the job of creating the conditions in the school, like addressing classroom management, safety in schools, whether or not [students] have a meaningful relationship with a trusted adult in the building, that鈥檚 not going to get us to where we need to be,鈥� Rodrigues said.
