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| JB Pritzker's mandated 'mental health screenings' for school children is a data grab, not compassion |
| 2025-08-20 |
| [HumanEvents] Mental health diagnoses will spread like wildfire through schools, not because kids are sicker, but because being “special” has become a badge of belonging. On July 31, 2025, the Governor of Illinois signed into law SB1560, which requires all public schools to provide mental health screenings to students in grades 3-12. According to Gov. Pritzker, this law is meant to “…provide early identification and intervention so those who are struggling get the help that they need as soon as possible. They improve academic and social outcomes. They help us break down the stigma that too often is a barrier to seeking help” (remarks at a news conference July 31, 2025, at an Evanston middle school). Beginning in the 2027-2028 school year, school districts must offer screenings to students in grades 3-12 at least once per year. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has until September 1, 2026, to develop model procedures and guidance. As of now, there are no guidelines on who will perform these screenings – that decision is left to ISBE. The screenings are not designed to diagnose, but instead will rely on self-report tools to detect markers for anxiety, depression, abuse, or trauma. What could possibly go wrong? I’ll explain. Kids and adolescents are masters of adaptation. The need to belong, to fit in, and to gain the attention of peers is especially strong in grades 3-12. We’ve already seen trends like “neurodivergent” identities and trans labels explode since the COVID lockdowns pushed kids onto screens. Now kids brag about being “on the spectrum” – because almost anyone can claim to be “neurodivergent” when they’re simply quirky or different. Even some autistic youth have gravitated toward trans identities because that community offers acceptance for being odd or unconventional. The same pattern will happen with these screenings. Students will be thrilled to walk away with a label because it feels cool, unique, and validating. Mental health diagnoses will spread like wildfire through schools, not because kids are sicker, but because being “special” has become a badge of belonging. In Bad Therapy, Abigail Shrier explains that instead of easing distress, therapy often traps kids in cycles of obsessively examining their feelings, amplifying anxiety rather than offering relief. This danger only grows with self-reported screenings, especially when results are logged by non-clinical staff who can’t distinguish between genuine struggles, trend-following, or attention-seeking. Shrier also warns that diagnoses are now handed out liberally, medications are prescribed too quickly, and therapy is offered for issues that don’t warrant medical intervention – creating a cycle of dependency. Then there’s the digital net. In 2022, Gov. Pritzker launched the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative (CBHTI) to address long waitlists, fragmented systems, and overwhelmed families. The answer was BEACON – the Behavioral Health Evaluation and Coordination Online Network – a statewide portal meant to serve as a “front door” to care. Families, schools, or hospitals fill out an intake questionnaire, and BEACON spits out a “service navigator” plan with referrals to therapy, crisis intervention, Medicaid programs, or support groups. The State contracted with Google Public Sector to build BEACON on Google’s cloud, powered by AI. Under SB1560, psychiatric hospitals are now required to funnel discharged children into BEACON to ensure “continuity of care.” Which means children’s most sensitive data will be processed through an AI-driven system owned and operated by Google. Not only does this open the door to hacking and data sales, it cements the State’s partnership with Big Tech to monitor and control families. Industry lobbyists often grease legislation like this. It’s the same playbook used with the DSM, where more than 60% of DSM-5 task force members had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies – over $14 million in total. But children aren’t wards of the State. They are the responsibility of their parents – to be nurtured, raised, and supported at home, not handed over to bureaucrats and corporations. And to the final, most important point – the parent trap. Family structure is one of the strongest predictors of child well-being, right alongside socioeconomic status. A nationally representative study of Korean adolescents found: “Adolescents from single-mother, single-father, and restructured families were associated with lower perceived academic achievement compared to adolescents from two-parent families” (Park & Lee, 2020). So why not invest in strengthening marriages and families, instead of building policies that drive them apart? It’s simple: the nuclear family is under attack. The State believes it has the right to raise your children. Don’t just take my word for it – here’s MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry spelling it out herself: “We haven’t had a very collective notion of - these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.” We need to keep families intact. Study after study proves what common sense already knows: children do best when their parents – not the State – raise them with love and stability. SB1560 isn’t about helping kids. It’s about expanding a system that thrives on labeling them, funneling them into programs they don’t need, and handing their most private information over to bureaucrats and corporations. It’s about normalizing dependency on the State while sidelining parents – the very people who should be guiding their children through life’s challenges. Illinois just gave us a blueprint for how to grow government at the expense of parents. The only real antidote is stronger families and the courage to say no to a system that insists it knows our children better than we do. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 Better they get an eye exam. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-08-20 18:33 |
| #1 Texas attorney general accuses Meta, Character.AI of misleading kids with mental health claims |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-08-20 10:51 |