Mental Health Help In Public Schools

Although schools are not in session now, Arizona students suffering from mental health issues will now be able to get excused absences from school.

The Arizona Senate passed a bill to allow an absence caused by a pupil's mental or behavioral health to count as an excused absence in K-12 public schools. The Arizona Department of Education identifies an excused absence as an absence due to illness, doctor appointments, bereavement, family emergencies and out of school suspensions. An absence relating to any other term or condition that is not specifically listed is counted an unexcused.

Arizona Sen. Sean Bowie has been working on passing a set of bills that focus on mental health in Arizona public schools. SB1444 is one of three K-12 mental health bills that Bowie is working on this year. These bills are a continuation of the work he did last session on a bill that passed focused on suicide prevention training at schools.

Sen. Bowie has decided to make mental health support one of the issues he has been working on this year. SB1444 is something that couple other states have done, and it clarifies that for students in K-12 schools that absences for mental health and behavioral health reasons are included on that list.

“An absence for a mental health reason is the same as an absence for any other reason that are currently outlined in law,” Sen. Bowie said.

The bill is an attempt to develop common standards for all schools. Currently each school is different in how they monitor a pupil’s absence. When parents call a student out for school, some schools will ask why others won’t.

Bowie said in his conversations with parents and educators many said that when the schools ask, it is more for their internal reporting, so they know how many students are taking days off for what reasons.

“There is still a stigma about mental health some people may say well somebody is having a bad day that doesn’t mean they get to stay home from school but sometimes it can be a more serious issue,” he said.

Chris Kotterman the Director of Governmental Relations for the Arizona School Boards Association said that the ASBA supports Bowie's bill but that his organization's main concern is that parents are properly informed about their child's absence.

“When parents call in, we don’t usually ask why. We just want to make sure the parents know why they are out,” Kotterman said.

Kotterman believes that mental health across the board is important. The ASBA supports Sen. Bowie’s in his movement to increase mental health support in Arizona schools.

“If he thinks this is important, then we will support him,” Kotterman said.

The Arizona Department of Education and additional board members from the Arizona School Board Association did not respond to questions on the issue.

Mckenna Leavens, an undergraduate student an Arizona State University believes that mental health days are important to carry on your day to day life. Leavens dad passed away when she was 17. “Some days are harder than others and sometimes I just feel like I need a break and to take the whole day off and do nothing,” Leavens said.

When Leaven’s father passed away in high school, she had taken two weeks off of school. In order to excuse the two weeks of absences, the high school required her to bring in her father’s death certificate into the attendance office.

Leavens also took off the second semester of her freshman year of college to be with her family. “It was hard to leave behind my friends that I had made and sacrifice losing experiences my freshman year, but it was more important to be with my family at the time,” Leavens said.

Sen. Bowie said that increasing awareness for mental health is something that the capital has been working towards by passing multiple bills relating to mental health support for young people.

“We have lost a lot of young people to suicide over the years. Especially in the east valley, the district that I represent so I have been proactively looking for ways to be helpful at the state level,” Sen. Bowie finished.

The bill was passed by the Senate and cleared by the House of Representatives.