Mental Health Days Necessary

One in six children in the United States aged two to eight years of age had a diagnosis of mental or behavior disorder. People who oppose children being able to take mental health days such as parents have longed thought, that students might take advantage of this option by pretending to be sick. There is evidence to such concerns that  are greatly overemphasized. 

States like Utah and Oregon offer mental health days. Oregon allowing five mental health days in a three month period and there are legaslative proposals to do the same in California, New York, and Florida.  Montgomerary County School in Virgiana recently decided to allow students to cite mental health as an excused absence (washingtonpost). 

Mental health and learning disorders are tied to higher dropout rates. Allowing students to get a few extra hours of sleep while allowing them to start their day a few hours later than normal may prevent these concerns.  A mental health day is a day meant to help reduce stress and burnout. Mental health days can provide a pause for students so they can come back with more energy, less stressed, and a renewed spirit.  Allowing students to have an oppurtunity refresh or recharge would give them the ability to sharpen their emotional skills and help them build the mental muscle to stay strong throughout the schools weeks. Using a mental health day to escape reality or avoid problems could actually cause more harm rather than good. According to Forbes, they suggest avoiding the following activities: Binge-watching television, and sleeping all day; staying in bed all day could worsen symptoms. 

With teachers providing more and more homework each year as the students become upper level students there becomes more homwork. Some juniors and seniors get hours worth of homework a night deoending on the class. Lot’s of tests can cause stress which can lead to the need of a mental health day. 

Mental health days are not only good for the practical aspect of giving young students a break, they also allow the community to help make clear that they understand that students get stressed and that they support giving the students in the community a mental health break to relax, unwind, and let all of the stress go. Not all students can cope well with having to push through another week of stress, tests, assignements and homework. Students sometimes need a break and weekends aren’t enough. Students can even feel stressed on the weekend. Some students do get homework and assignments assigned by teachers over the weekend where they are trying to meet the deadline of turning these in on time. These student can then feel they are right back at school doing homeowork and assignments again. All while, trying to achieve good grades and maintaining a good grade point average. 

Stress can cause an affect towards peers and family relationships. Stress can also lead to unhealthy eating and convenient food choices. Keeps ones thoughts and emotions towards themselves. Effects on feelings, and behaviors. Being able to have a mental health day this can help reconginze common stress factors, manage stress and time management on homework and school. 

It has been noticed that some of the ways that have been identified if a student has stressed would be anxiety, anger, irritability or restlessness, feeling overwhelmed, unmovitaved, unfocused, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, constant worry, racing thoughts, problems with concentration and making bad decisions. With students having at least some of these factors it should lead to a mental health day.

 Overall, students should benefit from mental health days being given/ taken off from the school having it be as a no absence day. Many students today have stress factors due to the amount of school work they get. States such as Utah and Oregon today, allow their students to be able to take off a mental health day likely leading to many more states with the amount of stress they get from school.