Illinois state public education officials must prepare for a September 2026 deadline to put into place the state’s new mental health screening policy, signed into law by Illinois’ Governor J.B. Pritzker in July 2025.
“Mental health screenings shall be offered by school districts to students enrolled in grade 3 through grade 12, at least once a year, beginning with the 2027-2028 school year,” states Illinois Public Act 104-0032.
The Act requires the Illinois State Board of Education and a Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Team to determine model procedures for the screenings, opt-out protocols for parents, and data privacy, storage, and sharing details, and to make relevant resource materials available.
Keynote Topic
The new public school mental health screenings, which will be done annually, and declining educational standards were among the primary topics of discussion at a late January Brownstone Institute-hosted supper club featuring former Illinois state representative Jeanne Ives.
Speaking to an audience gathered at the Base Café in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, Ives, who was awarded the Heartland Institute’s 2023 Heartland Liberty Prize, specifically criticized SB1560, the legislation that established the mental health screening policy.
“This bill truly does represent the arrogance of…Governor Pritzker and the progressive Democrats, and of course the education establishment,” said Ives, describing it as an exemplar of “intrusive” policy that further asserts government’s role in managing the personal problems experienced within families and by students.
Political Calculations
“The bill passed, believe it or not, the Illinois Senate with no opposition,” said Ives. “In fact, all 19 state senate Republicans voted for it.”
In contrast, 36 Illinois House Republicans voted against the bill, pointed out Ives.
Republican state senators “believed that voting for the bill would give them a seat at the table in designing the questions included in the screening,” said Ives.
State senators may also have feared voting against the legislation if a school shooting were to occur in the future and they would be blamed and viewed the opt-out option as sufficient assurance for parents who would want to exclude their children from the screenings, said Ives.
However, “The bill’s still trash,” Ives told the audience.
“It should have always been an opt-in,” said Ives. “If you want your child to have the screening because you want it or see an issue, fine. It should never have been an opt-out because you are then reliant upon the school district to actually inform the parents this is even happening, and for parents who are busy to…pay attention to the stuff that comes out that says ‘Sally’s going to have her mental health screening tomorrow’.”
Years in the Making
The bill did not come about overnight, Ives told the audience.
Since taking office seven years ago, Pritzker has been calling for reports and the development of strategies regarding the implementation of the kind of universal childhood mental health screenings described by SB1560, said Ives.
More broadly, Ives said, SB1560 could be traced to “the thought that schools need wraparound services for neglectful parents,” along with efforts to push social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching programs, which she described as also being major contributors to the lowering of academic standards.
Going ‘Beyond Academics’
“Practitioners of SEL describe it as a comprehensive education model that goes beyond academics, building essential life skills such as managing emotions, establishing and maintaining positive relationships, making responsible decisions, and setting and achieving positive goals,” said Ives.
However, in practice, SEL serves as the foundation for school policies that focus on ‘growth’ over grades, says Ives.
“It’s responsible for the untenable, harmful policies that allow students to receive 50 percent credit for assignments that aren’t even turned in and multiple opportunities to retake or redo tests and assignments,” said Ives. “That’s where SEL leads us. It leads us to much lower standards.”
Academic achievement becomes secondary to the development of soft skills.
“In some cases, students aren’t even graded. They’re assessed a ‘growth’ transcript which includes soft skills like vulnerability, empathy, and ambition,” said Ives. “Students develop their own goals for the year. Rather than aspiring to get an A or a gold star, they go for growth, like being a lot less worried about the future or having compassion or being able to explore the unfamiliar and deepen connection with the world.”
Schools Acting Like Parents
When contacted by Health Care News following the event, Jackie Sloan, the organizer of the Chicago Brownstone Supper Club, said she was grateful for the opportunity to have Ives speak at the event.
“Jeanne Ives’ discussion shone a light on the new Illinois mandate for annual mental health screenings in public schools,” said Sloan. “She provided information on how this is a potentially invasive policy that raises serious questions about parental rights, privacy, and the over-medicalization of childhood.”
Daniel Nuccio, Ph.D. ([email protected]) is a spring 2026 College Fix journalism fellow, reporter, and editorial associate for Health Care News.