Oregon Student Mental Health Day Response

New legislation in Oregon put into effect over the summer is paving the way for a broadened sense of understanding of mental illness in schools.

Students in the western state now have an allotted five days per every three months which may be approved as mental health absences, allowing for those coping with mental illness to receive the same treatment in schools as those suffering from physical complications and illnesses.

There are opinions on either side of the issue as to whether the legislation should have been passed. Some site the state’s already high absenteeism rates as a cause for concern while others site statistics on suicide rates among youth in schools. While both sides have valid points, there are several additional take-aways from this legislation.

First and foremost, this new policy opens the door for students who might otherwise be struggling to stop suffering silently.

In the last several years, the country has seen tragedy after tragedy where a young person has taken his or her life, and in an overwhelming number of instances friends and family didn’t know that something was wrong.

This legislation, in addition to providing equal treatment compared to those suffering from physical illnesses, may also have just created a first alarm in a sense between the student, parents and the school district. When students are physically sick, it is not sufficient for the school simply to be called and told he or she will not be present for class. Rather the parents must write a note and in many instances a doctor must vouch for the absence.

In other words, where it might look at first glance that an opportunity has simply been created for students to miss even more school unnecessarily, the likelihood is that this legislation—if it hasn’t already happened—will also likely be followed up with specific requirements for the absences to be excused, thereby ensuring that parents are made aware of their child’s call-off and allowing them to have conversations with and when necessary, to take action for treatment on behalf of their child.

The second take-away is that this legislation came from kids. One of the single greatest challenges for youth in schools previously has been fitting in. This legislation shows a shift in the mindset of today’s youth which says it’s okay to stop pretending; it’s okay to not be like everybody else and it is okay to not be okay. Where so many stories of bullying are told around the globe, now there is a story of kids standing up for themselves and for their peers.

They are acknowledging that mental illness is real and that there has been a discrepancy between the treatment of those suffering from physical illness and those suffering from mental illness.

And rather than try to pretend this isn’t the case or to respond by bullying and teasing the affected individuals, these youth came up with a solution to mitigate a real problem.

They didn’t place blame.

They didn’t make people feel bad.

They saw a problem, and they provided a solution.

The final take-away is for the greater implication beyond the educational system. Absenteeism is not simply a school problem. How many employers deal with chronic absenteeism and sometimes watch their greatest employees seem to deteriorate out of nowhere, ultimately to end up losing their jobs due to silently suffering from an illness that workplace policies and the stigma around mental illness dictates be suffered in silence?

What this legislation does is open the door for a broader conversation about mental illness to start happening. It opens the door for people to start recognizing mental illness for what it is, to stop blaming the person suffering and to start looking for solutions to help those affected, from youth to the adults suffering in the corner office and for parents everywhere who have cried themselves to sleep thinking, “if only I had known.” Whether the right decision for school attendance policies or not, it is a step in the right direction towards ending the stigma around mental illness.

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