WHOSE CHILD IS IT?

August 12, 2025•6 min read

MIND CHECK OR MIND CONTROL?

Pritzker’s new school “mental health” mandate gives teachers power to label your child, and keeps you in the dark. Parents say it’s not a safety net, it’s a political trap.

By Mike Monseur – August 12, 2025

The Smile That Hides the Struggle

In an Illinois middle school last year, a quiet eighth grader started slipping.

Homework went unfinished, grades dropped, and she seemed tired and distant.

Her mother chalked it up to sports and stress.

Months later, the girl tried to take her own life.

Stories like hers have fueled a nationwide push to catch mental health problems earlier.

Governor JB Pritzker has decided Illinois should lead that charge, but his plan has parents asking whether this is really about helping kids or about taking more control.

This summer, Illinois became the first state in America to mandate annual mental health screenings for every public school student in grades 3–12.

On paper, it’s being sold as a safety net. In practice, many parents fear it’s a political snare.

“Who gets to define what’s healthy — you, or the state?”

What the Law Does — and What It Hides

Under the law, each student will complete a yearly questionnaire.

If results show “concerns,” parents are notified, and the school must connect the child to counseling or outside services.

State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, who sponsored the bill, calls it common sense:

“We’ve screened for hearing and vision for decades — why not mental health? Catching problems early can literally save lives.”

But here’s the problem: parents are not entitled to see the full results.

Instead, they receive only what the state and the school define as a “concern” — a definition left deliberately vague.

“Parents aren’t getting the raw data — they’re getting a filtered report,” warns policy analyst Rachel Trent. “That leaves room for politics to decide what’s a problem and what’s not.”

When the Gatekeeper Has a Political Agenda

In Illinois, the filter for what qualifies as a “concern” isn’t neutral.

It’s shaped by the same political forces that have pushed heavy-handed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs into schools without parental input.

It’s guided by the same leadership that kept schools closed longer than most states during COVID, despite parent protests, and that forced new sex education standards statewide, over the objections of local districts.

Critics fear the mental health program could follow that same pattern — quietly turning political preferences into psychological “diagnoses.”

“If you trust the same political machine that hid curriculum changes from you to be the gatekeeper for your child’s mental health file, you haven’t been paying attention,” says education watchdog Mark Ellis.

The Trojan Horse Problem

The idea of catching mental health problems early is a good one — no parent disputes that.

But in the wrong hands, a program like this becomes a Trojan horse for reshaping children’s values without parents ever knowing.

Governor Pritzker says parents can opt out — but critics call that a false comfort.

“Once the door is open, who’s going to stop it from being pushed wide open?”

The bigger worry? Many screenings won’t be done by medical professionals at all, but by teachers.

That means a child could be flagged not for a genuine disorder, but for expressing a belief a teacher doesn’t like.

For parents already wary of political bias in classrooms, that’s a red line.

Pritzker’s political history makes the risk hard to ignore:

• 2019 – Backs aggressive DEI requirements in public schools.

• 2020–2021 – Keeps Illinois schools closed longer than most states, fueling record learning loss.

• 2022 – Expands taxpayer-funded healthcare to undocumented immigrants while programs for seniors face cuts.

• 2023 – Forces controversial sex education mandates statewide.

• 2025 – Mandates mental health screenings for all students, with parents only seeing what his administration wants them to see.

“It’s not the idea I oppose — it’s who’s in charge of it,” says Joliet father Daniel Romero. “Mental health help is great. But when Pritzker runs it, I don’t trust it won’t be twisted.”

Lessons From Other States

Illinois isn’t the first to try this.

In Pennsylvania’s 2018 pilot, parents were blindsided by counseling referrals with no access to the original screening.

In Washington State, a teenager was flagged as “at risk for bias-related stress” after voicing religious views — and the parents were never told.

Florida has taken the opposite approach: parental opt-in for any mental health screening, full disclosure of all results, and parent-led decisions on counseling.

The contrast is stark — Illinois is choosing a government-first model, while Florida cements parental control.

When Parents Are Shut Out

Peoria mother Karen Michaels sees where this is headed:
“JB Pritzker couldn’t keep our kids safe in the streets, but now he wants to decide what’s in their heads? That’s my job as a parent — not his.”

Underfunded From the Start

Even without politics, Illinois schools lack the staff to manage this program.

The state faces a shortage of more than 1,000 school counselors and psychologists, and many rural districts have none at all.

“A screening without follow-up is like diagnosing a broken arm and handing the kid a Band-Aid,” says Dr. Emily Harper, a Springfield child psychologist.

Illinois has a track record of launching big programs without the infrastructure to support them — from SNAP benefit backlogs to unemployment insurance delays to nursing home oversight failures.

The Privacy Trap

Illinois’ history with data security is equally troubling.

Breaches in its unemployment system and COVID contact tracing program exposed sensitive personal information.

Now, the state will be storing confidential mental health data on minors.

“Once the government has information about your child’s mental health, you don’t get to control how it’s used,” warns privacy advocate Laura Phelps.

Attorney Michael Reade says keeping results from parents while retaining them in state records could violate both FERPA and the Illinois Student Records Act — lawsuits waiting to happen.

Why This Fight Matters

This is bigger than Illinois.

If Pritzker’s program is declared a success, other blue states will copy it.

If it collapses — or is exposed as a political weapon — it could push red states to pass even stronger parental rights protections.

As FactsFirstUS.com warns:
“Any screening program in the hands of a politically motivated administration risks becoming an instrument for shaping beliefs, not just supporting health.”