A variety of students often ask their guardians to skip school because they simply do not feel like it or they just are mentally drained. Many parents think they just do not want to put in effort when it is a whole different reason.  

Mental health is people’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how people think, feel, and react. According to cdc.gov, “It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.” 

Waking up on a random day, someone may feel down, or you may feel mentally drained. It should be a valid reason to not attend school one day because you do not feel right. Taking mental health days to relax and recharge over what could have happened that affected you or because you are not feeling right. Building over your mental health with more stress or anxiety wouldn’t help yourself or anyone else.  

No one should be forced to go to school if they are not feeling great because it can lead them to not want to try as hard because they are tired, or not in the best mood, and it can affect your classmates and school employees. Parents should be able to understand mental health is an important part of everyday life and if not treated correctly it is not going to affect you and your surroundings well. As said on namica.org, “Untreated mental health conditions can result in unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, and suicide, poor quality of life.”  

Obvious concerns that kids may use mental health days as an “excuse” because they are taking advantage of or be negatively affected by taking time off. Time for Kids wrote, “Schools help kids protect kids’ mental health in many ways. Some states let kids take mental health days. In August of 2021, the New York Tims reported that in the previous two years, eight states had passed bills allowing kids to stay home for “mental or behavioral health reasons.”  I believe that schools should allow mental health days often to make sure students mental health is good.  

Something may affect a teen’s life and being able to have a day of relaxation and to really relax because something has happened or because you are just mentally drained. Anyone can be going through something or have bad mental health, but students should get a break due to their mental health.