Mental Health Days for Oregon Students?
April 24, 2019
“Should schools allow students to take excused mental health days?” asks Evie Blad in Education Week. Some students in Oregon sure think so. They are supporting a bill that would add “mental or behavioral health” to the list of legitimate reasons for school absence. This move comes as ESSA “puts pressure on schools to drive down high rates of chronic absenteeism—large amounts of missed school time that includes excused and unexcused absences and out-of-school suspensions.” The bill was “suggested by a group of high school students called Students for a Healthy Oregon, which also supports a measure that would require annual mental health screenings for middle and high school students.”