House Bill 1827: a bill to establish mental health screening and services for children in foster care

 House Bill 1872 was passed by a floor vote in the Illinois House on April 10, 2025. If the Senate passes it, this will become a state law (assuming the Governor signs it—the Democrats in the House voted for it, and so it got 75 Yeas to 35 Nays grin Republicans). It aims to amend the Children and Family Services Act. This Bill is targeting the youth who are removed from their living situations and placed into the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services. With this bill, the youth who are removed will receive a mental health screening and prevention 45 days after removal. They will also receive care for every year they are in the system after their initial screening. The only conditions under which they will not receive care are if the child is less than six months old, the child consents to denying care if they are twelve years old or above, or if the child is already receiving care from another mental health professional. If the child’s screening comes back showing signs of mental health issues, the child shall be connected to mental health resources and proper treatment by their caseworker. If the child is covered under Medicaid, the care plan they receive should guarantee that they have access to a provider within 30 days of the referral from the screening they received. Any existing care plan must also meet these conditions, granted that the child is covered in the state’s medicaid program. The overall purpose of this bill is to create a more holistic mental health system for the children under the Department of Child and Family Services. 

This proposed bill will help in the ongoing fight to improve conditions for children in the foster care system. While foster care and temporary placements are meant to improve the child's situation, that is not always the case. Children will be dealing with the trauma of being removed from their parental care and placed into the home of another relative or even a stranger. This is something that they are going to carry with them the rest of their lives, and a bad situation in the system can only worsen their mental health. “Mental and behavioral health is the largest unmet health need for children and teens in foster care” (AAP). By completing these yearly screenings and guaranteeing care for the children who need it, we will be greatly improving the future lives of these children. Screening these children right after removal and again yearly will help catch any potential signs of mental health issues before it gets too late. This plan can act as a great preventative and ongoing mental healthcare for the children who need it the most. 

An argument for why someone would not want this Bill to be passed is the cost it will impose on the state might be high. Since these children are under the care of the Department of Children and Family Services, any treatment they need to receive is going to be at the cost of the state, granted that they are on Medicaid. Children who are in the foster care system only represent around 3% of the total number of children on Medicaid, but they disproportionately represent the number of children using Medicaid for mental health and behavioral services. Children in foster care represent about 29% of the total expenses on child mental health and behavioral services (CHCS). This means that even though the children in foster care are not taking up a large portion of the enrollment in Medicaid, they are taking a large portion of the funds for mental health care. “Children in foster care have the highest mean behavioral health expenditures at $8,094 per year, compared to other children in Medicaid” (CHCS). Children in foster care are also more likely to use more expensive methods of treatment and are four times more likely to be prescribed some sort of psychotropic medication (CHCS). If treatment is expanded to cover all of the children in the foster care system under the conditions of care, the expenditures will only increase. 

While there may be some push back against this Bill because of the cost it will incur, the state is already spending a good amount of money on these children without this bill being in effect. With some slight adjustment of the budget, the government could easily cover whatever extra expenses come out of the bill being passed. Even though we will be spending more as a whole to allow these children to receive more holistic care, it will pay off in society in the long run. If these children can receive both preventative and ongoing mental health care, they are more likely to be able to contribute more to society in their adulthood. If someone is struggling with mental health crises and trauma throughout their adulthood, they will not be able to reach their full potential. However, if the person receives care and works to heal the trauma that has piled on in their lives, they are going to become a more rounded person who can help society progress. 

References

Medicaid behavioral health care use among children in ... Center for Health Care Strategies. (n.d.). https://www.chcs.org/media/Medicaid-BH-Care-Use-for-Children-in-Foster-Care_Fact-Sheet.pdf

Mental and behavioral health needs of children in Foster Care. American Academy of Pediatrics. (n.d.). https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/foster-care/mental-and-behavioral-health-needs-of-children-in-foster-care/?srsltid=AfmBOoqC3HLu9qhleBCLkmuL1lR81ZY3bx4VrpRZHfeYohfE3dWpR

        This presents your audience with a good presentation of the bill.  Perhaps you might have included the information about the mental health needs of children in foster are first, before explaining the bill, or given a bit more about mental health needs of children in foster care. I'm very glad you found that statistics that the national average is slightly over $8,000 per foster care child per year spent on behavioral health services (figure 2 on the Center for Health Care Strategies fact sheet). 

I think a point to emphasize in a descriptive account here is that the kids who get placed in foster care tend to be on track to having very rough lives.  Their risk of ending up incarcerated, or committing suicide, or becoming homeless are way higher than almost any other group.  Their rates of completing college are super low. Behavior health interventions such as therapy aren't cheap, as these rely on very skilled professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers. The medications to help these children may also be expensive. 

        I think we also need to consider what the costs to our society would be if we did not provide adequate mental health services to the children in foster care. I wonder if anyone has done a cost-benefit analysis on the long-term benefits in reduced court costs, incarceration, and welfare benefits paid out to adults who were in foster care.  I suspect a child who is in foster care for six years or so, and gets about $60,000 in behavior health care over those years (more than the average per year because they are in foster care for a longer time, and presumably have more behavioral and mental health issues compared to infants in foster care for a year or less), is at considerable risk for ending up collecting TANF or SNAP and Medicaid as an adult, and is also at high risk for ending up in prison, where the annual cost would be close to $60,000.

I would be very curious to know how much this bill is likely to cost the State of Illinois.  I noticed that Representative Haas, a social worker who runs a mental health clinic in Kankakee, voted against this bill, and I would like to know why she did so.  I think the reason you give why people would vote against the bill (we do not have money to pay for it, so until we raise more revenue, we should not pass such legislation) must be the main reason it had 35 "nay" votes in the final passage of the bill, but are there are reasons to oppose it that we cannot think of?    

   

Student suggests that every school in Illinois ought to have a Mental Health Professional

 The Honorable Michael J. Coffey Jr.

E-1 Stratton Office Building

401 Spring St.

Springfield, IL 62706

RE: SUPPORT FOR SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR

Dear Representative Coffey, 

My name is [Student name], and I am in the process of earning my Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois Springfield. I am writing to bring your attention to an issue that I feel is very important in the Illinois school system. Within our primary educational system, we are lacking sufficient support for our students’ well-being and overall success. Students in our school system continue to struggle with their mental health. 

In recent years, we have seen a drastic rise in poor mental health among students. According to KFF, formerly known as The Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five adolescents report symptoms of anxiety or depression. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 22 percent of students surveyed reported that they seriously contemplated suicide and almost 10 percent attempted suicide. Twenty percent of these students did not receive any kind of mental health care because they were afraid of the stigma, they could not afford it, or they did not know how to access services. Students are also facing an overdose crisis. KFF mentions there were 722 adolescent deaths due to drug overdoses in the United States. These are problems that are affecting each and every student in our public education system.

I believe that every school should have a mental health counselor. Currently, schools provide students with a guidance counselor. A guidance counselor generally helps students register for classes, prepare for college, and understand their options after high school. They are also often tasked with caring for the mental health of their students. This can be a lot of responsibility for one person. If every school were to add a designated mental health specialist, students would have a specific person to see about their mental health issues. These mental health professionals would provide students with individual or group therapy, emotional support, substance use and social counseling, family support, and referrals to other services. 

In my personal experience during high school, our guidance counselor did not have the time or resources to spend on individual social, emotional, or mental health issues. I attended a rural area school that provided education to over five towns. Our guidance counselor was tasked with helping over 400 students. Our school needed a separate counselor who could have helped students with any mental health problems they may have faced. When my good friend lost her mother suddenly and tragically, she did not have the support at school that she needed. Her grades and mental health suffered. She turned to alcohol to help her cope. I believe she could have greatly benefited from a designated mental health professional, someone who would have been able to help her access the resources she needed.

In order to provide schools with enough funding to pay for these services, the money collected on sales tax revenue from cannabis sales could be utilized. According to a press release from Governor Pritzker, the state of Illinois brought in $417.6 million dollars from sales tax at adult-use cannabis dispensaries in 2023. According to Marijuana Policy Project, two percent of this revenue goes to public education and safety campaigns, and the highest percentage allocated is 35 percent to the General Revenue Fund. A portion of the percentage allocated to the General Revenue Fund could be reallocated to fund these services in public education. Adult use cannabis is now a huge industry in Illinois, and the tax revenue earned from this industry could help our children grow into accomplished adults.

The children in our schools are facing a great crisis. Mental health problems are reaching new heights, and we need services that can lead us through these extremely hard times. We need to make sure that children receive the help they need while they are in school to make sure they go on to become productive members of our society. For all the reasons mentioned above, I would encourage you to work with your partners in the legislature to come up with a solution to fund these endeavors in our public school system. If you have the opportunity in the future to support any bills related to student mental health, I would strongly encourage you to support those efforts.

Sincerely,

____Student name______

____Student street address_____

Springfield, IL __Zip Code___

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Youth risk behavior survey: data summary and trends report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf

Government of Illinois. (2024, January 11). Pritzker administration announces third consecutive year of record-setting growth for adult use cannabis sales [Press release]. https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.29494.html#:~:text=Sales%20taxes%20collected%20at%20Illinois,%2C%22%20said%20Governor%20JB%20Pritzker.

Marijuana Policy Project. (2019). Overview of the Illinois cannabis regulation and tax act. Marijuana Policy Project. https://www.mpp.org/states/illinois/overview-of-the-illinois-cannabis-regulation-and-tax-act/#:~:text=The%20more%20concentrated%20THC%20is,THC%20concentration%20higher%20than%2035%25

Panchal, N. (2024). Recent trends in mental health and substance use concerns among adolescents. KFF. https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/recent-trends-in-mental-health-and-substance-use-concerns-among-adolescents/

This is a well-structured and argued letter.  It begins with an introduction of who you are, and then immediately you go to the description of the problem.  You support your description of the problem with some good facts you found from good sources.  Convincing.  By the third paragraph you are ready to tell your reader what you think we need.  Also helpful, you have a personal anecdote that strongly supports your case. Those stories are always especially convincing.  Your combination of using facts and stories is the best way to convince a politician.

Best of all, you have something to say about how the solution could be funded.

Illinois has nearly 4,000 schools.  Salaries and benefits for 4,000 mental health professionals would cost approximately 400 million dollars ($400,000,000) if typical salaries were $65,000 and benefits were $35,000 (health insurance, pension, etc.)  Actual salaries might range from $55,000 to $100,000, but we just need to estimate the number of mental health professionals and their average salaries and benefits, approximately.  

It seems to me that we have three tasks to accomplish in persuading people in our General Assembly to make sure every school in Illinois has a qualified mental health professional associated with the school: 

First, we need to point out that mental health professionals are effective in helping students in schools. Your letter establishes a good argument for need, but I wish we also had some evidence that the policy you suggest would address that need in a way that would make a significant difference in the lives of children.  I believe that it would, but I would be happier if I could point a politician to some good research that supports our shared belief.

Second, we need to suggest that $400 million to get mental health professionals in every school is a more effective and efficient use of $400 million spent in other ways to promote mental health among children. I cannot think of obvious alternatives.  Perhaps we could spend $200 million on part-time mental health professionals, or contracts with private provider of mental health services for each school, or more mental wellness and psycho-social developmental activities in schools, and get a similar result?  At any rate, some exploration of alternative approaches to the problem to give a politician more choices than status quo (do nothing; keep things as they are) and the one intervention you are suggesting (mental health professionals in every public school in Illinois) to show that your proposal is better than some other plausible interventions, either in being more effective or more efficient, or both.

Third, I think we need to make a case that the public have an interest in providing this (mental health support for children in public schools) as a public good and a thing that ought to be provided by the taxpayers of Illinois.  Some politicians, including the one to whom you are addressing the letter, may have ideological preferences for letting people privately handle mental health and wellness issues with their own resources, and they may be skeptical that the public have any business taxing and spending to provide mental health services in public schools.  I think we need to make a moral case that mental health services in public schools is a public good just as important as public education, provisions of roads, law enforcement protection from criminals, and health care assistance for those too poor to afford the cost of their own care.   

Student wants more peace rooms in high schools

 Dear, Governor Pritzker

 My name is [Student_Name]. I am from a small town named Thawville in Illinois, and I am a student at the University of Illinois in Springfield. I am aware of your work with the education system, including your efforts to strengthen childhood education and make higher education more accessible. I appreciate your initiative to improve the quality of Illinois schools. A prevailing concern in education is the state of student mental health. Multiple high schools in Chicago and Springfield have begun to utilize social-emotional learning environments also called “Peace Rooms” in their schools where students can come for support working with a mental health professional. It would be beneficial to grant money to expand this service to more schools in the state.

I’m writing this letter to acquaint you briefly with some of the mental health issues faced by young people in Illinois, explain some of the things we can do to help them, and urge your support for any legislation or budget allocations that will support adolescent well-being.

 Since the Covid-19 pandemic multiple studies conclude that students have been experiencing higher rates of depression and anxiety. The “My Resilience in Adolescence” (MYRIAD) study in the UK compared a group of children who were in the study before COVID with a group that was surveyed after COVID and found large and significant declines in mental health and increases in depression.  The main protective factors that seemed to help children were better school climates (more supportive schools), and strong home connectedness (better relationships among persons in the home). Poor mental health in students leads to more absentees, lower grades, and a poor school climate. The Chicago Health Atlas tells us that as of 2021, 40% to 51% of Chicago students in public high schools reported feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities (in the previous 12 months—this was a self-reported incidence of depression in the past year). That’s a terrible situation. 

The Centers for Disease Control has a clearing house with information about evidence for things that schools can do that are most likely to help adolescents (What Works in Schools). Illinois teachers can consult the Classroom WISE to learn more about what they can do to encourage well-being among their students. The IDEAS Center in New York under Kimberly Hoagwood suggests ways to improve the quality of state-delivered mental health care services for youth. The Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) also offers guidance and training on how to make schools healthier for students and staff.  Here in Illinois, the Illinois Department of Human Services,  under your leadership, provides links to mental health resources for students and their families, as well as many mental health grants.

Under your direction, school staff who engage in continuing education to keep their licenses must routinely receive mental health first aid training (Public Act 101-0350 from January 2020). Illinois students can take mental health days. The Screening, Assessment, and Support Services (SASS) given through the Crisis and Referral Entry Services (CARES) provides mental health services to youth in crisis. Two years ago, in May of 2022 our state released the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Plan, and last year (in February of 2023) our state published a Blueprint for Transformation, which offers us a dozen strategies for improving mental health services and behavioral healthcare for Illinois children.

Most schools have counselors that are there for student support including college planning, SAT help, and one-on-one chats. School counselors are an important part of our schools; however, student mental health is still struggling, and the state’s plan for system transformation has a goal of improving access to school-based preventive and mental health services. On way to do this would be to increase the number of school counselors and school social workers. The recommended counselor to student ratio is one to every 250 students, yet according to a report done in 2022 the ratio in Illinois was one counselor to every 408 students. This workload leads to more burnouts in counselors and leaves students without proper support. Furthermore, school counselors are not always trained to handle the wide array of issues students may be facing. 

Teachers are also getting more involved in finding ways to support their students. Psychologists have been developing training to teach teachers how to react during times of student distress. One training that was developed by Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network and the NCSMH is a free online course called Classroom WISE. This is a step in the right direction. Similarly to school counselors, teachers have a lot on their plate and do not always have the time or knowledge to help a student working through things like depression and trauma. 

I would especially like to draw your attention to Peace Rooms. These are described as a safe space where students can talk through difficult times and regulate their emotions with a mental health professional before returning to class. These rooms can be utilized for individual use or to work through things as a group. Peace rooms can serve multiple functions such as a space for students to talk through interpersonal issues, a safe space for before and after school, and an alternative to out of school suspensions. Students can not always rely on parents to support their mental health needs and school staff do not know what home looks like for each student. Peace rooms allow students to take initiative with their mental health and seek out support with ease.

Concerns regarding the peace rooms include miscommunication about when to refer students to the peace room, and some staff do not agree on using peace rooms as an alternative to suspensions. There are also concerns that students may not use the rooms appropriately and may take advantage of being out of class. 

A school in Chicago partnered with UMOJA to implement a peace room for their students. A 12th grader named Alijah (“AJ”) shared his experience with the peace room. He shared that he has no one to talk to about what he was going through and he had recently experienced the death of his brother. AJ expressed appreciation for the support he got from Asher Miller, a specialist through UMOJA, who helped him recognize that he could grieve at his own pace. AJ said that it “was like someone finally understands that I want to succeed, but mentally I’m not as prepared as everyone else.” Staff note that before UMOJA was implemented, the suspensions were higher and there were more fights. The peace room has also been used for teachers to change the way they work with students. The peace room also fosters connection between students and teachers and creates a more positive climate at school. 

Overall teachers have reported fewer absences from students, less suspensions and less fights after utilizing peace rooms. It would benefit teachers and students to expand the implementation of peace rooms across schools in Illinois and I hope you seriously consider this option. 

A key problem in implementing the excellent plans you and your administration have put in place to improve mental health for adolescents is that the state does not raise sufficient revenue to find what needs to be funded. Recently the base operating expenditures by the state government were $48.3 billion (FY 2024 budget), but when you look at what we really need to do for K-12, higher education, DCFS, ending functional homelessness, and improving our mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment systems, we should probably be spending about $53 billion.  The revenue we get from sales taxes, income taxes, and corporate incomes taxes (approximately $41.4 billion in fiscal year 2023) is too low by about $5 billion. 

Further, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that Illinois has one of the most regressive ways of collecting revenue for local and state government, with the lowest quintile of Illinois residents paying about 14.8% of their income in various state and local taxes, while the top 1% typically pays only 7.3%.  I hope you will pursue a serious overhaul of the state tax system.  Personally, I would recommend abolishing the general sales tax (keeping excise taxes on things like gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol, and so forth), as poor people pay too much on sales taxes, and states that have no sales taxes enjoy many advantages in their retail industries. I also wish the state would establish a property tax cap of 1%, and allow more local expenses to be covered through a distribution of state income taxes, to relieve the reliance on high property taxes.  

To generate revenue while ending the general state sales tax and reducing property taxes, we would need to dramatically increase our flat rate income taxes, up to something like 14%, I should think.  However, we can decrease the burden of these income taxes by significantly raising the general standard deductions, increasing the state child tax credit, increasing the state earned income tax credit, and generally allowing more tax deductions for charitable giving, medical expenses, and educational costs. The tax system overhaul ought to bring the total local and state tax burden for the bottom quintile down from 14.8% to something under 4%. The middle 60% should see only the slightest net tax burden decrease (from something like 12.1% now to something closer to 11.5%), and those in the top 1% and the top 20% should see their tax burden increase, but not above the the taxes paid in New York (13.5%), perhaps instead something like 12% to 12.5% (the top quintile now pays about 9.4%, and the top 1% now pays about 7.3%).

                                                                    Thank you for all the fine work, [student_name]. 

Splett, J. W., & Conversation. (2023, October 10). Doubling counselors in schools won’t solve kids’ mental health crisis—here’s what else to do. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2023/10/10/doubling-counselors-in-schools-kids-mental-health-crisis-solutions/

Abrams, Z. (n.d.). Kids’ mental health is in crisis. Here’s what psychologists are doing to help. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/01/trends-improving-youth-mental-health

Tool: Create a high school peace room. (2020). https://schoolguide.casel.org/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/2020.11.10_High-School-Peace-Rooms_FINAL.pdf 

Liang, C. T. H., Gutekunst, M. H. C., Liu, L., Rosenberger, T., & Kohler, B. A. (2023). Formative evaluation of Peace Spaces in a middle school: Teacher perceptions and student usage. Psychology in the Schools, 61(1), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.23045

ND Film Group. (2019, March 18). UMOJA - One student’s restorative justice journey in an Umoja peace room [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6inVs4Op8I

Montero-Marin, J; Hinze, V; Mansfield, K; et al., (2023, Sept 21) Young People’s Mental Health Changes, Risk, and Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(9):e2335016.  doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35016 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2809780