PA Mulling Giving K-12 Students Mental Health Days Off

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania students would be permitted to take three excused absences for mental health each school year without a doctor's note under a bill about to be introduced in the state House.

Rep. Napoleon Nelson, a Montgomery County Democrat, wants the state to follow the lead of Utah and Oregon, which already have approved what he termed "mental health tool" legislation.

"Providing mental health days would encourage students to take care of their mental health as they would their physical health," Nelson wrote in a recent memo to colleagues. "It is time that mental health supports are normalized in schools,allowing for schools to better understand how
they can help students who take absences."

Nelson cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on how the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the mental health of many youths. About a third of all high school students reported experiencing poor mental health most of the time or always during the pandemic, and almost 20 percent of students had seriously considered attempting suicide.

"Mental health needs to be valued as much as physical health," Nelson wrote.

.