Many schools around the country are experiencing rapid declines in attendance. The rapid decrease is leaving millions of teachers wondering why their classes are so… empty. Some will say students are becoming lazy, some will argue that they just “don’t like school.” However, studies show that mental health has a huge role to play in chronic absences. 

  The National Alliance on Mental Illness says, “Some students may not necessarily have a mental health condition but are having a challenging day or week where their mental health is suffering. For all these students, there are times when their mental health can interfere with school performance or overall functioning.” Most students who stay home on a school day are going through something at school, whether it be a bad relationship with a student or teacher, or a big test that is making them anxious.

  Many adults claim that students miss school because they do not want to learn, and do not want to show up.

  The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health writes, “Chronic absence is often considered an education issue. Yet many of the root causes can originate outside the school setting and may include limited access to health care, housing instability, and family stress.” Some students will miss school because of stress at home as well, not having the ambition to get out of bed and go to school, due to their mental health

  Massachusetts has laws regarding attendance in schools. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says, “Massachusetts law requires that the school principal or headmaster, or a designee, make a reasonable effort to meet with the parent or guardian of a student who has 5 or more unexcused absences to develop action steps for student attendance. The action steps shall be developed jointly and agreed upon by the school principal or headmaster, or a designee, the student, and the student’s parent or guardian.” However, most schools do not follow this policy, as most just assign make up times for hours lost. (Saturday school, detention, etc.)

  Overall, most schools are focusing too much on attendance and not enough on the mental health that is causing the decline. Schools need to begin focusing on mental health, and then maybe the attendance will increase. Personally, if I had had more help with mental health I would not have missed as much school as I have. I think we need to take more steps to help students, instead of punishing them for struggling.