For many kids in Ohio, the countdown to the start of the school year is just three weeks away. https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/lawmaker-mental-health-days-to-students-in-k-12/530-adaa21a4-313a-49e6-8b54-cff8323f80e8 When they arrive with their backpacks and pens to complete their school work, one lawmaker believes they’ll need another tool — mental health days. Under a proposal from state Sen. Willis Blackshear Jr., (D-Dayton) the bill would allow schools to grant students up to three excused absences each school year, specifically for mental health reasons. This initiative is designed to help remove the stigma from taking time off for mental wellness, treating mental health as equally important to physical health. “Besides being reactive, this is something that we need to be proactive and address head on because what we don't want to see happen is, is that kids continue to go through some of their struggles and they're not being addressed, but then we see it in test scores, we see it in their attitudes. We see it in different ways and then we're wondering why they're acting like this, or why they're performing like this,” he said. However, the bill does not guarantee that a child who takes a mental health day will automatically receive professional mental health assistance or counseling from the school. That rests with a parent or guardian. The legislation recognizes that not every school in Ohio has mental health counselors or adequate resources on site, so it does not impose a requirement for direct intervention or follow-up on the school’s part. The main guarantee offered by the bill is that students would not be penalized for taking a mental health day. Their absence would be officially excused, which protects students from disciplinary action or academic penalties due to these absences. “I want to get to the root cause of what's really going on because I feel like we can go just a little bit deeper in terms of addressing this issue,” Blackshear said. Key points of the bill The bill defines a “mental health day” as a school day during which a student attends to the student’s emotional and psychological well-being in lieu of attending school. School districts that allow for mental health days are required to excuse a student’s mental health day absence without any need for a physician’s or other health professional’s certification of the student’s condition. By granting mental health days, a district may excuse students from school altogether or establish an in school mental health program for students to attend in lieu of regular classes. It also specifies that once a student uses one excused mental health day, a district may refer that student to the appropriate school health and support services, such as counseling, social work or psychological services. In December 2021, the Protecting Your Mental Health report from the US Surgeon General noted a rise in certain mental health symptoms including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation during the ten years leading up to the pandemic. From 2009-2019, mental health challenges were the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes in young people, with up to one-in-five children in the United States having a mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral disorder. Between 2007 and 2018, suicide rates among youth ages 10-24 in the United States increased by 57%, becoming the second leading cause of death for individuals in that age range. In Ohio, one-in-three students report challenges with anxiety. The number of high school-aged kids with major depressive episodes has nearly doubled over the past decade.