New Hampshire considers mental health days for students

By Holly Ramer, Related Press

CONCORD, N.H. – A lady whose teenage son died by suicide in 2017 urged New Hampshire lawmakers Tuesday to move laws permitting kindergarten by means of Twelfth-grade college students excused absences from faculty to take care of psychological and behavioral well being points.

Martha Dickey informed the state Home Schooling Committee that the invoice would complement two different proposals she championed: a regulation handed final yr including the phone quantity for the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline to the again of each scholar ID card and a 2019 regulation that requires faculties to develop insurance policies and provide workers coaching on suicide prevention. The previous was named the Jason Dickey Suicide Prevention Act in honor of her son, who died at age 19.

Dickey stated the brand new proposal would assist scale back the stigma of psychological sickness and assist elevate consciousness that such situations usually intrude with a toddler’s training.

“A psychological well being day will not be meant for a scholar to keep away from lessons or assignments, slightly an accepted psychological well being absence might help open the door for faculties to help struggling college students with total psychological well being care,” she stated.

Twelve different states have comparable legal guidelines and others are contemplating it, stated Emma Sevigny of New Futures, a well being advocacy group.

“Eradicating this barrier of getting an absence on their report card removes the stigma of getting psychological sickness and in addition improves the flexibility for college students to take that point with out worry of unfavorable penalties to their grades and different elements of their training,” stated Sevigny, the group’s coverage coordinator for youngsters’s behavioral well being.

Nobody on the public listening to spoke towards the invoice, which has each Republicans and Democrats as sponsors. That bipartisan help bodes properly at a time when the 400-member Home is sort of evenly cut up between the 2 events.