Time Out More schools are granting students mental health days
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n districts around the country, students by 56 percent between 2007 and 2017 — feeling anxious or depressed can be with the pace of increase greater from 2013 excused from school just as they would to 2017 than from 2007 to 2013. For children if they had a stomachache or a fever. ages 10 to 14, the suicide rate tripled Last July, Oregon joined multiple states in between 2007 and 2017. a growing movement aimed at improving And last year, the Pew Research Center students’ emotional well-being by passing reported that 70 percent of teens surveyed legislation that expands the reasons for identified anxiety and depression as major excused school absences to include mental problems among their peers. or behavioral health. Oregon’s bill allows five mental health Those who backed the measure say it’s days a year. The state of Utah and meant to change the stigma around mental Montgomery County Schools in Virginia health in a state that has some of the adopted policies in 2019 that allow students country’s highest suicide rates. to take time off to focus on Experts say it is one of the first their mental well-being. In 2009, state laws to explicitly instruct Minnesota was the first state schools to treat mental health to pass a bill allowing excused of teens surveyed and physical health equally. mental health absences. identified anxiety Legislators in Florida The Florida bill would allow and depression as attempted to follow suit, but a one mental health day per major problems proposed measure was tabled in semester as an excused absence, among their peers. March. When Rep. Susan Valdes and a parental note would be filed the bill last year, she sought required for the missed day. SOURCE: The Pew to elevate mental and behavior Last August, a similar proposal Research Center health issues to the same level was filed in the New York State as the flu, colds and dental appointments, Assembly. treating them as legitimate reasons for “In the age of social media, the internet students to call in sick. and constant bombardment of negative “It is time for us to take mental health news and events, our children are bearing as a whole more seriously,” says Valdes, the brunt of a quickly changing society,” adding that kids today are under a lot of explains Valdes. pressure. In another sign that adolescent mental Supporters of similar measures approved health is getting increased attention, in other states cited studies that indicate Florida’s board of education voted last the mental health of teens and young July to require schools to offer at least adults has changed dramatically in the past five hours of mental health instruction decade. annually to sixth through 12th graders. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last October that the — James Call, of the Tallahassee (Fla.) suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 Democrat, and The Associated Press was stable from 2000 to 2007, but increased contributed to this story.
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