Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker recently signed a new law that allows children aged 7-17 to take up to five mental health days per school year. According to Healthline, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic a national poll shows that 46% of parents have said that their teen began showing signs of new or worsening mental health conditions.

Students at Warren were thrilled about this news, one student saying: “I think that five mental health days will be beneficial because I’ll have time to focus and prevent burnout.”

 Another student claimed that “a couple more days would be nice but anything is better than nothing. The school should check up on students who use those mental health days and provide some more support.”

 A substantial amount of teens are struggling with not only social but academic anxiety and these five days to recoup and learn to understand and validate their feelings will be so incredibly important to grow as a human being.

According to NPR other states are taking steps in a similar direction as similar laws have been proposed in Florida, Utah and other states. Thanks to this bill, students can now prioritize their physical and mental health to better succeed in their academic careers.