For more than a year, young people have been waving danger flags: They miss class. Their schoolwork is weak or nonexistent. They鈥檙e exhausted, unfocused. As schools step up their support, one simple, concrete step is becoming popular: allowing excused absences for mental health days.
State legislatures and school districts are responding to a tidal wave of student trauma. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality among young people were already on an alarming rise before the pandemic, but soared as schools and communities shut down to fight the virus. In a June 2020 Harris poll of 1,500 teenagers, 78 percent said schools should prioritize mental health days so students can take proper care of themselves. In a June roundtable with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, high school students urged him to make mental health in schools a top priority.
鈥淭his year was really hard,鈥� said Sara Falluji, 15, a rising junior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Ky., who has among her peers and waged her own battle this year with stress-related exhaustion. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 normalize having excused mental health days, then students鈥� stress and anxiety could get worse. It could turn into physical health issues and longer absences if we push students too far.鈥�
I鈥檇 struggle with getting work in on time because I couldn鈥檛 get the energy to finish.
State legislatures, typically responsible for defining the acceptable reasons for school absence, are increasingly adding mental illness or mental health to their lists. Minnesota has allowed it since 2009; Utah and passed similar laws in 2018 and 2019. But the pandemic has sparked a new flurry of legislative activity on the issue.
In 2020 and 2021, seven states鈥擜rizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Nevada, Utah and Virginia鈥攅nacted new laws allowing excused absences for mental health reasons, or expanded on previous laws allowing it. This year, legislatures in another five states鈥擟alifornia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts鈥攄ebated such bills.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really a flaw in the education code,鈥� said California state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat who has sponsored a series of K-12 mental health bills since he lost a brother to suicide 10 years ago. 鈥淚f you break your ankle or have the flu, your parent sends a note. But if you鈥檙e home with depression or anxiety, it鈥檚 not treated the same way. The district doesn鈥檛 have to recognize it.鈥�
Schools have resources, like programs, and counselors, but many times they don鈥檛 have the ability to see which students are struggling before it鈥檚 too late and it reaches a crisis situation.
One of Portantino鈥檚 bills, which passed in the state Senate and is under consideration in the Assembly, would , and require half a school鈥檚 staff to be trained to recognize early warning signs of mental illness. Another would create mandatory mental health courses for students in elementary, middle, and high school.
The that lets students take excused absences for mental illness. But lawmakers expanded on that this year. A specifies that taking care of one鈥檚 mental health鈥攏ot just having a mental illness鈥攊s an acceptable reason for missing school.
鈥淣ot all of us have a diagnosed mental illness, like anxiety or schizophrenia, but all of us have mental health, just like physical health,鈥� said Mike Winder, the Republican representative who sponsored the new bill. 鈥淓ven the healthiest among us sometimes have days where our mental health is just not well. Rather than push kids beyond the breaking point, this allows them to better manage their mental health.鈥�
School districts, too, are getting on board. In May, the school board in Montgomery County, Md., a Washington D.C. suburb, approved a resolution calling on the superintendent to change the district鈥檚 definition of an acceptable absence from 鈥渟tudent illness鈥� to 鈥渟tudent illness and well-being.鈥� Board Vice President Karla Silvestre said the board chose its words carefully.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to call it a mental health day, because we know there is still stigma around that,鈥� she said. 鈥淢aybe parents or students wouldn鈥檛 want to self-identify as needing a mental health day. So we used the word 鈥榳ell-being.鈥欌��
I really could have used mental health days. I was absolutely stressed out.
Schools try to topple stigma and build early-warning systems
Many of those who have fought for the new crop of mental wellness laws want to erase the stigma that keeps so many people silent on the issue.Schools must embrace a range of strategies鈥攏ot just mental health days鈥攊f they are going to help students recover their emotional balance after COVID-19, and deal effectively with life鈥檚 challenges in the years ahead.
One of those strategies is building a culture of follow-up. In Ohio鈥檚 Hilliard City school district, which serves 17,000 students in Columbus, counselors reach out to students or their families after daily absence reports show that a student took two consecutive mental health days, said Mike Abraham, the district鈥檚 director of student well-being. That follow-up wouldn鈥檛 be possible if mental health days didn鈥檛 have their own unique absence code.
The district created the code in the fall of 2019, shocked into action by a wave of depression, anxiety, and suicides among students and staff members, Abraham said. And it added a range of programs to support students鈥� emotional struggles.
The district鈥檚 four-year-old 鈥渉ope squad鈥� trains 35 students in each middle and high school to recognize early signs of mental health problems in their peers鈥攊ncluding those that appear in social media posts鈥攁nd team up with adult advisers to connect those students to counselors or social workers.
Students can connect with mental health specialists through a district 鈥渟afe school help line,鈥� too. The district is also working to train teachers in trauma-informed care, and plans to use federal stimulus money to hire 10 social workers. The idea is to build layers of support strategies, Abraham said.
My emotions have been all over the board. 鈥� eventually it crashed down. I had a meltdown. I can鈥檛 do this anymore, can鈥檛 keep pushing it away.
Sometimes emotional struggles are hiding in plain sight
Following up on mental health days has enabled the district to 鈥渇ind students we wouldn鈥檛 otherwise know are struggling,鈥� Abraham said. And Hilliard refers more students to a local children鈥檚 hospital for mental health care than other similar-sized districts in the county, Abraham said.
鈥淚 consider that a good thing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t means kids are getting the help they need.鈥�
Mental health experts urge districts to take these kinds of multipronged approaches.
鈥淢ental health days aren鈥檛 the ultimate solution; they鈥檙e a piece of a larger puzzle,鈥� said Jill Cook, the executive director of the American School Counselor Association. Noting that federal stimulus funds can be used to hire mental health professionals, Cook encouraged districts to get as close as they can to the ratios recommended for school counselors (one per 250 students) and psychologists (1 per 500 students). Most fall far below those levels.
Cook also recommends that schools build strong partnerships with community mental health providers, and train all staff members鈥攏ot just teachers and administrators鈥攖o recognize signs of struggle in their students.
If you can鈥檛 get out of bed one day, it's not because you鈥檙e bad.
Mary Giliberti, the vice president for policy at Mental Health America, encourages schools to envision their mental health programming as a spectrum that includes prevention, recognition, and services. Granting excused absences for mental health days can help prevent a serious problem, or facilitate getting treatment, she said.
She urged schools to provide counseling on campus, too, wherever possible, whether they use their own staff or staff members from a community organization. Students of color are more likely to face transportation challenges if they have to seek treatment off-campus, Giliberti said, so school-based options carry an outsized benefit for those students.
requires a note from a medical or behavioral health professional. Most of these laws, however, permit parents to report such absences. But experts and policymakers don鈥檛 seem too concerned that the policies will be abused.
Popular culture loves to depict mental health days with air quotes and a wink, an excuse for perfectly healthy people to play hooky from work. But taking 鈥渄ecompression days鈥� occasionally can be one effective way to manage emotions and stress, Cook said. Even still, it鈥檚 not a bad idea for schools to make sure those days aren鈥檛 used by the 鈥渟chool avoidant,鈥� she said.
In Hilliard City, overuse of mental health days is not something Abraham worries about.
鈥淢aybe a few kids might take advantage of it,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut if we catch just one kiddo struggling with mental health and we鈥檙e able to get that student some help, it鈥檚 well worth it.鈥�
