The Allegany County school system's Board of Education recently changed an attendance policy that will not allow mental health therapy absences to be excused absences. Students recently received a letter stating this change. Children who receive outside mental health therapy will no longer be given an excused absence and are only being offered the option of meeting with the school counselor(s). 

If this policy remains in place, the children in the Allegany County school system will be at a serious disadvantage in terms of their mental health and will be denied the long-term mental health services that may be needed and which cannot be provided in the schools. It harms the well-being of children as these are the most integral stages of human development, where support is often most needed. If children are not granted the ability to receive long-term mental health care outside of the school system as an excused absence, it will impact every area of their life, whether that be in school, outside of school, or later in their lives if their mental health needs are not met. Denying excused absences for mental health care is just like denying excused absences for medical appointments, dentist appointments, or seeing a doctor/provider of any kind. 

This also impacts school counselors who are often tasked with other things aside from counseling the children in the schools. They often can only provide 20 minutes of short-term, brief/solution-focused counseling to students, and the schools have a considerably uneven ratio of counselors to children (for example: Mountain Ridge High School's ratio is 2 counselors: 825 children); however, as found in the American School Counseling Association's (ASCA) National Model for School Counselor's, ethical code, and position statements, school counselors do not conduct therapy. This is not beneficial to children or the school counselors. Not every child benefits from short-term, brief/solution-focused counseling; some children must have long-term counseling that attends to and improves their mental health needs. Having this type of counseling in schools is important; but, it is not logical with the caseload school counselors have, and also not enough for the many children/adolescents who need or are referred out to other mental health services/professionals who can provide longer-term care and treatment. For these reasons, the new attendance policy is not only very detrimental to the mental well-being of the children, but also a major setback in making mental health care more accessible to the entire community of Allegany County. 

See here resources and descriptions from the ASCA: 

• ASCA Ethical Code: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/44f30280-ffe8-4b41-9ad8-f15909c3d164/EthicalStandards.pdf
  • Specifically Section A.1.e: Provide culturally responsive counseling to students in a brief context and support students and families/guardians in obtaining outside services if students need long-term clinical/ mental health counseling.
  • Specifically, Section A.6.b: Provide a list of outside agencies and resources in their community, or the closest available, to students and parents/ guardians when students need or request additional support. School counselors provide multiple referral options or the district-vetted list of referrals options and are careful not to indicate an endorsement or preference for one individual or practice. School counselors encourage parents/guardians to research outside professionals’ skills/experience to inform their personal decision regarding the best source of assistance for their student.
• Appropriate and Inappropriate Activities for School Counselors: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/8fe536c2-7a32-4102-8ce7-42e9b0683b3b/appropriate-activities-of-school-counselors.pdf 
  • Line 6 on Inappropriate Activities: providing long-term counseling in schools to address psychological disorders

This attendance policy denies children and adolescents their right to appropriate mental health care treatment, again, at a time when that support is often needed most. It asks school counselors to take on a role that is not within their ethical boundaries or duties. The policy must be changed and must take into consideration the health care needs of the children in Allegany County. It is discriminatory and ostracizing to deny children the right to an excused absence for mental health care when those needs are just as important as physical health care.  If nothing else stresses the importance of changing this policy, then this statement must: Mental health care is health care. 

Please sign this petition and help inspire change for the children within the Allegany County School System.