Taking a day off from school to relieve stress may become an excused absence for students in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60.
The District 60 Board of Education discussed modifying attendance and excuses policies to allow student mental health or social emotional days as an excused absence, like a cold or the flu, during its meeting Tuesday at the Lincoln Center administrative building in Waukegan.
Last amended over three years ago, school officials began to consider allowing social emotional or mental health days as excused absences when the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation allowing up to five mental health days as an excused absence.
Kathryn VanderBroek, the district’s general counsel, said taking a mental health day does not mean a student must be diagnosed with a disorder like depression or anxiety. They may just need a day to relieve stress before formally resuming their studies.
“Social emotional stress days are the phrase I kind of use in my head to differentiate from an official mental health diagnosis,” she said at the meeting. “It’s a day a student may want to take for oneself for their emotional well-being,” she added after the meeting. “Kids feel stress.”
Before recommending a complete policy on social emotional days to the board, Superintendent Theresa Plascencia said the administration will take a deeper look into all potential impacts. A complete plan will be discussed when the board next meets at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 at Lincoln Center.
Eduardo Cesario, the deputy superintendent for academic support and programs, said after the meeting input will be gathered from students, parents, teachers and administrators before developing a final policy. It is the only part of the attendance policy potentially changing.
“This is built around our belief in social emotional health and students’ social and emotional well-being,” he said. “Being back in school (post coronavirus pandemic) is a transition for students and teachers. We need to build stamina.”
No precise number of social emotional days is set yet. While the state allows five, student board member Isam Hussaini said after talking to a number of his peers, he believes eight is a better number.
“It would be eight days for the whole year, not four a semester,” Hussaini said “One day may not be enough. A student may need two in a row, but not three. After two, you come back to school and talk to your teachers about what work you need to make up.”
Hussaini also suggested creating a mechanism so students can report their own social emotional day absence on their own without parental consent. The student may feel a need to relieve stress while the youngster’s parents do not agree.
Board member Anita Hanna equates social emotional health days to the personal days adults occasionally take off from their jobs. Students may need to reduce stress just as their elders do.
“This would be a benefit to students,” Hanna said “Just as an adult needs personal days, mental health days will be good for students.”
Board member Lucy Leguizamo said she believes it is important for a parent to report the reason the student is absent that day, rather than the youngster doing it on their own. When taking the day away from school, the child or teen should receive the maximum benefit.
“If another adult in their life is not aware of their mental health issues, (they are) probably not going to get the resources and the tools they need in order to take full advantage that mental health day,” Leguizamo said. “Our youth are very young. When I was that young, I didn’t know how to address how I was feeling.”
District 60 is not alone with its consideration of allowing a social emotional day as an excused absence. Cesario said other districts around the state are reevaluating their policies, too. The pandemic has accentuated the need to work with students’ social emotional needs.
“We want to make sure our students feel safe now that they are back in school full-time,” Cesario said. “This has become even more important with COVID.”
