Illinois law now allows students to seek "mental health days" as excused absences from school, but many parents want to know more about when to allow their children to take those days, and experts are offering their opinions as the educational year gets underway.
At Clarity Clinic, child psychiatrist Dr. Sudhakar Shenoy sees it every day.
“I see that many kids are having this return to school anxiety, return to school panic attacks. Nobody knows what is normal anymore,” he said.
Shenoy says the sheer number of kids needing help isn’t the only problem.
“The acuity and severity of cases that were coming in was way higher than what child psychologists have seen ever before,” he said.
According to the CDC, a survey of high school students in 2009 found 26% of them said they had experienced hopelessness and sadness. That number jumped to 44% in 2021.
“It’s younger and younger students. It isn't just older students. We're seeing this in elementary and middle schools as well,” said Mark Klaisner, the executive director of West 40, which offers support services to 41 school districts consisting of 152 different schools, mostly in the western suburbs of Chicago.
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Klaisner sees the Illinois law that allows K-12 students to take up to five mental health days per year as excused absences as a first step.
“I think it's a great tool to foster these conversations that need to be had,” he said.
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When it comes to when parents should call in their kids for a mental health day, Dr. Shenoy said parents should consider it if a child is inconsolable, even after parents reassurance or if they are having physical signs of a panic attack.
“Having outbursts, having regression, turning back to being 1-2 years younger, these are all red flag things that I would think about,” he said.
When a mental health day is the reason for an absence, Klaisner said that most of the school districts served by West 40 have said that will trigger intervention by a school social worker, but he also encourages parents not to wait until the behavior warrants a mental health day.
“If a parent doesn't want to excuse their child from school, at least use those warning signs to contact school and say 'is there somebody who can help?'” he suggests.
There’s no funding attached to the Illinois statute that took effect in Jan. 2022, but keeping track of the mental health absences could change that in the future.
“All 4,000 schools are doing this. We can have some really interesting data by the time we get to legislative session, starting to talk about budgets and funding and resources to help address student mental health needs,” Klaisner said.
