School districts nationwide are canceling classes for what they are calling mental-health days, saying students and staff need the breaks to handle the pressure of returning to school during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is another way this era for K-12 education is unlike any other, as educators rush to make up for lost instructional time while simultaneously managing last-minute closures for quarantine, a lack of bus and cafeteria staff and, now, the need to take a break from stress.

The...

School districts nationwide are canceling classes for what they are calling mental-health days, saying students and staff need the breaks to handle the pressure of returning to school during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is another way this era for K-12 education is unlike any other, as educators rush to make up for lost instructional time while simultaneously managing last-minute closures for quarantine, a lack of bus and cafeteria staff and, now, the need to take a break from stress.

The practice caught on in early November when many districts in the Southeast opted to create a long weekend by canceling school on Nov. 12, the Friday after Veterans Day, according to Burbio, a Pelham, N.Y., data company that is monitoring K-12 school closures in 5,000 districts across the country. The announcement of closures accelerated in the middle of the month as many school districts decided to cancel classes the entire week of Thanksgiving, said Dennis Roche, Burbio president.

“The volume was really high, really quickly,” he said.

There have been at least 3,145 school closures specifically for mental-health needs so far this year, predominantly in North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri, according to Burbio. That represents more than a third of the 8,692 school closures so far this year, which have mostly been for quarantine or staffing reasons.

Some school districts are citing mental health as the reason for scheduling half-days or virtual days on a continuing basis. The Detroit public schools announced Nov. 17 that there would be virtual instruction on three Fridays in December. Superintendent Nikolai P. Vitti cited the “concerns of school-based leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and families regarding the need for mental-health relief.”

Superintendents have commonly been the ones to schedule these mental-health days. Some school-board members have said students need more time in the classroom, not less.

Jonathan Young, vice chair of the Richmond City School Board, said school children in Virginia’s capital spent nearly 18 months at home as schools stayed closed far longer than in neighboring districts. Recent testing showed that students were lagging unusually far behind state standards in reading and math, he said.

“Was the diagnosis correct as far as the pace being not sustainable? Oh, yes,” he said. “But was the prescription for the cure the right decision, to double down on time out of the building? No.”

Mr. Young added, “It compounds the losses.” He said he would prefer that the district ease requirements for teachers, such as submitting daily lesson plans or attending professional development courses.

The Suffolk, Va., public schools district recently announced that there would be early dismissal every other Wednesday through the end of the year to avoid teacher burnout. Reagan Davis, president of the Chesapeake Education Association teachers union in Virginia, said this school year has been even more challenging than 2019-2020, when K-12 education abruptly went remote during the spring semester as the pandemic started, and 2020-2021, when teachers toggled between virtual and in-person instruction.

After public-school enrollment declined across the country last year, school districts such as the one in Lansing, Mich., are under pressure to keep students engaged as budget questions loom. Photo: Bart Thomas The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

Mr. Davis, an eighth-grade math teacher, said he and his colleagues are routinely staying until 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. to grade papers and catch up on administrative tasks because they have lost planning time to recording lessons for quarantined students and covering classes for absent teachers.

“We’re exhausted, for lack of a better term,” he said. “Teachers are not able to take care of themselves.”

“‘We’re exhausted, for lack of a better term.’”

— Reagan Davis, president of Chesapeake Education Association in Virginia

In New Bern, N.C., Craven County Schools Superintendent Wendy Miller cited mental-health concerns in canceling school Nov. 12 and asking students and staff to do something kind for themselves and someone else. Dr. Miller, a former state teacher of the year, said she has been in classrooms weekly this fall and watched teachers struggle to help students catch up academically while also teaching basic social skills, which she said are lacking after 18 months of scant in-person interaction.

“It’s learning how to work together, how to do something as a team, depending on one another,” she said. “It’s been a challenge to come back after 18 months. We had to rebuild that culture.”

Dr. Miller said learning can take place outside the classroom, and she was pleased when some students spent their day off cleaning up the school grounds or packing food for the hungry.

“It’s important we give grace and take care of one another,” she said. “It was more than just a day off.”

Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com