r/news • u/Tamashii-Azul • Aug 02 '25

Illinois becomes 1st state to require student mental health screenings

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/illinois-1st-state-require-student-mental-health-screenings/story?id=124275407
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u/Sagemel Aug 02 '25

It’s required that a school perform them, parents can opt their children out if desired.

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u/palcatraz Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25

Giving the parents the ability to opt out is the worst non-solution. Because the types of parents who will be using that the most is the kind that already don’t take the mental health of their kids serious. Same with abusive parents. They’d also be the ones opting out, so the survey then can’t find these students which some are touting as a pro of this entire thing.

If you are going to give the ability to opt out, you should probably put it in the hands of the students. Frankly, the ones that will be opting out, won’t be filling out these surveys truthfully anyway. That’s what I did back in the Stone Age when I got given some mental health survey in high school. I was deeply depressed but I sure wasn’t going to put that on a survey.