NY Students Could Take Mental Health Days Under New Bill

NEW YORK — Sick days aren't just for the flu. New York students would be able to miss school for mental health reasons under a Manhattan lawmaker's new bill.

The measure state Sen. Brad Hoylman introduced Thursday would make "mental or behavioral health" issues a permitted reason for a student absences from school.

New York should join other states in making it easier for students to seek mental health treatment as suicide and self-harm endanger more and more young people, Hoylman says.

"We need to recognize suicide and self-harm among young New Yorkers as the major public health crisis that it is, demolish the stigma around mental health care, and do everything within our power to help kids who are struggling seek treatment," Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, said in a statement. "An absence from school should never be a barrier to mental health treatment for a child in New York State."

Self-harm sent nearly 4,400 children aged 0 to 19 to emergency rooms in 2016, and 239 kids in that age group died by suicide from 2014 to 2016, according to data from the state's Department of Health.

Current state law requires schools to establish attendance policies that say which kinds of absences will be excused and unexcused. Holyman's legislation would make it explicit in the law that absences for mental health reasons would be permitted, similar to an existing provision for religious observances.

The State Education Department would have to implement the change if the bill is passed, according to Hoylman's office.

Minnesota state lawmakers passed a law offering kids mental health days in 2009, and Utah and Oregon followed in 2018 and 2019. Illinois is also considering similar legislation, Hoylman's office said.

While he praised Hoylman's bill, Dr. John Garruto, the president of the New York Association of School Psychologists, said students should also be able to get help at school so they don't miss too many classes.

"(J)ust as schools have nurses to address the physical health needs of students, they need to have the appropriate school-employed mental health professionals, such as school psychologists, to meet the social and emotional needs of students to prevent excessive absences due to these issues," Garruto said in a statement.