Illinois mandates mental health screenings of students starting this fall
By ZETA CROSS
The Center Square contributor
A new state law, the Wellness Checks in Schools Program Act, will require yearly mental health screenings for Illinois’ 2 million school students.
The new law will be phased in starting in the fall of 2024.
Mark Klaisner, executive director of West 40 in West Cook County, said schools will have to find a screening model and train people to administer the screenings. The Illinois State Board of Education is currently working through the challenge of exactly how to get a mental health screening process up and running.
The goal is to identify troubled children and intervene before their mental health problems escalate. On Jan. 3 in Perry, Iowa, a small rural school district, a 17-year-old who had been bullied for years shot seven people, including the principal, before killing an 11-year-old boy and himself.
“In 1999, we were all shocked by Columbine. How could that happen? Now it happens every week,” Klaisner said.
The problem is more widespread than the cases that get on the news, Klaisner said.
“If you were to walk into any school and talk to the principal or the dean, they will tell you that behavioral incidents are way up from what they were 3 to 5 years ago,” Klaisner said. “It’s fights in the hallways. It’s kids acting out.”
Safe schools, designated schools where Illinois children are assigned after multiple suspensions and expulsion, are “busting at the seams,” Klaisner said.
“Way before COVID, we saw the increase of instances of disturbed kids acting out at school,” Klaisner said.
The COVID school shutdowns have made the problem worse, he said.
“The rise of behavioral and mental health issues coming out of the pandemic has been astounding,” he said
For years, experts at the Lurie Children’s Hospital, the Center for Childhood Resilience, and the Chapin Hall Center at the University of Chicago have consulted with Illinois on the best ways to care for students with mental health problems.
Ideally, a screening session will be a 15-minute, one-on-one conversation between a trained social worker or counselor and a student. Trained screeners have more success in finding problems when they can look for body language and cues, Klaisner said.
Anxiety and depression are triggers for behavioral problems. Screeners may find a child who is concerned about coming to school. The child may think that othert students are looking at him or talking about him, indicating a higher-than-normal level of anxiety.
“Let’s follow up with that young person and see what is going on with them,” Klaisner said.
A decade ago, social workers in schools only dealt with kids who had disabilities, he said. Now schools are finding that many families are dealing with difficult, trauma-based issues that manifest in schools.
“You will find educators who are feeling the pressure of ‘one more thing on our plate.’” Klaisner said. “It is already on our plate and we can’t deny its existence.”
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS AND IS A VIOLATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND PARENTS RIGHTS. THIS BILL SHOULD BE CANCELLED IMMEDIATELY THIS WILL MAKE PSYCHIATRIC DRUGGING OF SCHOOL CHILDREN SKYROCKET IT IS A SUPPRESSIVE DRACONIAN BILL
This is stacking the policy making deck for profiteering.
All school shootings since Columbine were done by someone after they got on an SSRI. This is creating the problem…..
These people are preying on the system. They want ‘patients for life’ and all the money that comes with that – mostly from our tax money. If you ever look up what these people are paid to come and troll at schools…it’s outrageous! FAR more than teachers. They are predators. Once a kid is ‘picked up’ by them…they are worked into the system and drugged for their whole lives…turned into zombies who THEN do atrocious things like shootings. THAT’s where all these school shootings are coming from. They MAKE the problem and then swoop in to ‘solve’ it just like an old fashioned ‘protection racket’.
This is going to funnel so many kids into a medication vacuum. There are studies that state screening is faulty.
You need to not let this go into effect. There has to be some good people who can see through this screening bill. Reach out to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights for information concerning this.
Mandatory psychiatric treatments for children is child abuse and a violation of parental rights. Do not pass this.
THIS IS A TERRIBLE BILL and doesnt need to pass!!!
There are studies that state screening is faulty. I completely agree with Karen Bennwtt Drew. Getting patients for life and get them on unneeded medications. Violation of our civil rights and parents right. WE WILL NOT BE PARTICIPATING.. this is making us again to something we DO NOT agree with and shoving it down our throats.
Oh what could possibly go wrong here!
As a Bpard Certified Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist oho has been practicing Psychiatry for over 30 years, I want to first say that screenings do not mean treatment. First and foremost, the idea is to try and catch issues before they become problematic in school or at home. As a psychiatrist we recognize that communication is key and many of our kids today, especially with all of the social media platforms, do not know how to communicate what they are dealing with. Often times, they “speak” to us through their behavior which in turns leads to problems with peers, relationships and academic function. A screening will just flag a possible concern that could be due to a number of possibilities. Intervention strategies do not start with medication. Our goal is to improve the health and wellness of the individual by building healthy ways to manage “stuff” that we all deal with. Mental health is impacted by so many things which include diet, exercise, sleep, and so much more and when we have a better understanding with the issues, we can better support the needs of our children, their families and their communities. I realize I am biased, but I believe that health and wellness education is key to healthier living. I will add that your concerns do need to be addressed in a forum where you can ask questions of those who are implementing this new strategy. However, just know that for the children and families that do require a child psychiatrist (and most do not) and possibly medication, that intervention makes the difference in their child being successful at home AND at school.
Screenings are all you need to do pretend treatment is needed.
Mandatory screenings ARE NOT mandatory treatment.
Screenings are what they use to mandate treatment