The move is an acknowledgment of a disturbing trend: In December 2021, US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory declaring a mental health crisis for American children, citing “an alarming number” of youth struggling with “feelings of helplessness, depression, and suicidal thoughts.” Between March and October 2020, the height of the pandemic, the percentage of children who went to the emergency room for mental health problems increased by 24% for children ages 5 to 11 and 31% for children ages 12 to 17 years, according to Association of Children’s Hospitals.
In 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the second cause of death among adolescents, a 31 percent increase during 2019
Christine M. Nicholson, a clinical child psychologist in Kirkland, Wash., who sees many children with mental health issues, said she supports this effort to allow mental health days. She said kids sometimes need to skip school, go on a hike, watch a movie, or even stay home and bake a cake or watch a movie.
“I think mental health should be appreciated just as much as physical health,” he said. “The children are going through a difficult time and they need a break.”
“The pandemic, with its isolation, didn’t help,” said California state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat who introduced a bill that became law in 2021. The bill does not specify how many days a year it can take a little boy. . Portantino, whose brother Michael took his own life in 2010 at age 52, said he hopes other families can prevent the tragedy his family suffered: “The pandemic has exacerbated the need, but if you can speed up the solution, that’s a good thing.” .
Proponents of such measures say they are long overdue and can help destigmatize mental health in the eyes of parents and children. So far, Washington, California, Illinois, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Kentucky offer mental health days.
“At the very least, it makes a big statement that mental health is just as important as physical health,” said Mike Winder, a Republican representative from the state of Utah who sponsored a bill that became law in 2021. Winder introduced the bill after talks with his daughter who suffered from her own mental health issues. “This policy communicates from the highest levels that it’s okay to take care of your mental health,” he said of the bill, which doesn’t limit the number of days a child can take.
But how does celebrating a “mental health day,” which Americans have traditionally interpreted as a “wink, wink, nudge” excuse to play hooky, improve mental health?
“When students don’t feel physically well, there is a universal understanding that they should stay home and take time to feel better,” said Barb Solish, director of Youth and Young Adult Initiatives at the National Alliance on Mental Illness ( NAMI). her that she supports the use of mental health days.
“School policies that recognize mental health as an acceptable reason for absence can help students take the time they need to take care of themselves and get healthy,” Solish said. “Practically speaking, if you have a fever, you’re not paying attention in class, right? You are not learning the lesson. If you feel overwhelming anxiety, you’re not learning either.”
In states that have adopted them, policies vary, although in all cases, parents must sign a note excusing their child. Some place limits on the number of days off a child can claim; for example, in Connecticut, students may have two days a year and they may not be consecutive, while others, such as California, do not.
As with all absences, make-up work is expected. But the policies don’t dictate how days off can be used, whether it’s to stay in bed or attend therapy appointments or something else. Some suggest that it could breed abuse. Portantino bristles at the idea.
“We don’t question that a parent would want Johnny to stay home because he has a cold. That is the exact reason why we have to have this bill. That is a stigma that we have to correct. We are not making a distinction between physical and mental health. If his son is sick, his son is sick,” he said.
Most laws passed or introduced require parents to provide the same type of excuse note that a physical illness would require.
Some are concerned that providing mental health days is not the right approach to this crisis.
In the National ReviewDaniel Buck, editor-in-chief of whiteboard review, a newsletter that focuses on education, wrote that mental health school days “might relieve immediate distress but facilitate habits that only make anxiety and depression worse in the long run.” He suggested that they teach kids how to avoid rather than how to deal with the real issues that plague them, like too much social media. “By popularizing mental health days, we encourage our students to let the world dictate their emotions rather than teach them self-regulation and emotional control,” he writes.
Instead, he suggests: “What if we went back to building resilience in our schools? What if we trained students in the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius and the habits of virtue in Aristotle so that they could face the inevitable difficulties of life? And these would include emotionally aware habits like regular reflection, conversations with loved ones, or planned and timed days off.”
Solish said there’s a fine line between taking a day off to feel better or skipping school to avoid a test you haven’t studied for. That’s why it’s important for parents to get to the bottom of why a child might ask for time off. And she added that if a child requests or takes too many of these days off, that can be a sign that something is wrong and indicates a need for professional help.
Solish said, “We are not going to solve the youth mental health crisis with a few mental health days. But it’s a great starting point.”
Dave Anderson, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute in New York who studies mental health services in high-needs school districts across the country, agreed.
Days off will help, he said, but “there are very few [mental health] providers, too few online resources, too few school counselors trying to serve too many students, and too little information given to educators on how to support children.” Of the more than 100,000 clinical psychologists working in the United States, only 4,000 are child and adolescent physicians, according to a 2022 report by the American Psychological Association. “School psychologists are also in short supply, leaving children without sufficient support at school,” the report says.
Jack Ramirez, 19, of Spring Township, Pennsylvania, said he thinks mental health days could literally be a lifeline for many young people.
He had urged Pennsylvania state Sen. Judith Schwank (D) to introduce a mental health days bill in 2020, when he was interning in her office the summer before his senior year of high school. She was still recovering, she said, from the suicide of a classmate a few months earlier. Maybe if that student had felt that he could stay home to take care of his mental health, Ramírez thought at the time, he would still be alive.
The measure, which would provide two excused mental health days per semester, is still in committee in the Pennsylvania State Senate.
“This is not a skip school bill,” said Ramirez, now a sophomore at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who has dealt with her own feelings of isolation and anxiety. “High school students feel isolated, they feel the pressure of grades. They are competing with each other. It’s getting really scary, and we’re not paying enough attention. … If we want to start saving lives and start talking about solutions, it’s very important to pause a lot of these things that we’re dealing with.”
Make the most of a ‘mental health’ day
Should you encourage your kids to take a step back from their miniature rat race from time to time? And if it does, is there a way to make the most of it?
“There is no perfect way to take a mental health day,” said Barb Solish, director of Youth and Young Adult Initiatives for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). “But it helps to be intentional.”
Here are some of Solish’s tips for getting the most out of a “mental health day”:
Listen to your child: Ask open-ended questions about their relationships and experiences and why they think they need a day off. So let them talk.
Make it meaningful: Try to avoid catching up on schoolwork or getting lost on social media. “Those are stressors for kids,” Solish said.
Do relaxing activities: Go for a walk, bake, draw, get lost in nature. “Anything that brings your child back to the center is a good thing,” Solish said, adding that he doesn’t want to overschedule the day, because that will be stressful in his way. Should parents allow children to enjoy video games, television, or other screen time? “Nothing is really off limits,” Solish said. “He just wants to make sure he’s being really considerate of what he’s going to help.”
Calm down with feeling talk: “You don’t need to push kids to talk about their feelings all day,” Solish said. You can talk about how important it is to take care of your mental health.
Know when you need more help: If your child shows increased irritability, insomnia, depressed mood, poor motivation, or regularly asks to stay home from school, he or she may need the help of a mental health professional, said Dave Anderson, a psychologist clinician at the Child Mind Institute in New York. York. Contact a pediatrician, school counselor, or your family doctor to find a recommendation.
