A new Illinois law mandating mental health screenings for school children is worrying parents and policy experts.

Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) signed a bill on July 31 mandating mental health screenings for children and teenagers from third to 12th grade. The legislation will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

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Parents will have the right to opt their children out of the screenings, which the state’s board of education is reviewing how to implement. However, questions remain about the law.

“What does that [screening] entail?” Cata Truss, a Chicago mother, grandmother, and former educator, told Fox News.

“A child dealing with trauma may show the same signs as one with mental illness, but you don’t want to treat or medicate them the same,” she said, adding that she believes parents should opt out and get their own screenings for their children if they have concerns.

While there are some parents who agree that children need more mental health help, there are also privacy concerns about the information collected by the screenings.

“We do need an increase in our mental health [services] for our children,” former public school teacher Christine McGovern told the outlet, adding that the measure could result in the “alienation of parents.”

McGovern said the “alienation” of parents was the “biggest issue” she ran into while teaching.

Mailee Smith, an Illinois policy director and mother, said she is awaiting guidance on how parents can opt their children out of the screenings.

“Are parents going to be told every year they can opt out? Because if they don’t, that’s really not an opt-out process,” she said.

“Who is going to be collecting and reviewing this information? How will students’ confidentiality be protected?” she continued. “It seems to pose more risks to freedom than answers to the mental health crisis.”

The Illinois mental health screenings could contain questions about suicide, which child advocates believe could be inappropriate. Author Abigail Shrier, who wrote the book Bad Therapy, chronicled a story about her son, who came down with an illness that resulted in a trip to an urgent care.

At the clinic, her son was given a mental health assessment that asked questions about whether he was considering suicide or if he had thoughts about suicide. Shrier disagreed with administering such screenings to easily influenced young children.

“There are so many problems with this,” she wrote. “The main one is: Kids are wildly suggestible, especially where psychiatric symptoms are concerned. Ask a kid repeatedly if he might be depressed — How about now? Are you sure? — and he just might decide that he is.”

Pritzker touted the new law as a win for children’s mental health support.

“At a time when our kids are struggling with anxiety and depression more than ever before, it’s our responsibility to ensure that young people have all the support that they need to get the help that they deserve,” he said in remarks at the bill’s signing ceremony.

“Our goal is an integrated, comprehensive approach to quality mental and behavioral health services for young people across the state,” Pritzker added.

Suicide in children under 10 years old is rare, but pediatric suicide rates nearly tripled between 2007 and 2017 between the ages of 10 and 14. Suicide deaths among 10- to 24-year-olds increased by 62% from 2007 to 2021, according to Yale Medicine.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is said to have contributed to rising youth mental health struggles in recent years.

“There was what’s been called a secondary pandemic,” said Christopher Pittenger, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson professor of psychiatry at Yale University’s School of Medicine. “Youth mental health struggles were already at crisis levels, and woefully underserved, prior to the pandemic — and then they exploded as an area of enormous need.”