America First Legal (AFL) announced on Monday that it had filed a complaint with the Department of Education about an Illinois law that requires students to undergo annual mental health evaluations.
The organization sent a letter to the agency, noting that its Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) is responsible for enforcing the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), “which requires that schools receive affirmative consent from parents before requiring any student to submit to a ‘survey, analysis, or evaluation’ that concerns ‘mental or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family.”
However, Illinois recently passed a measure that “requires every school in the state to conduct mental health screenings on all students ingrades 3 through 12,” which is “facially incompatible with the consent mandate set forth in the PPRA.”
This means that Illinois schools will conduct these annual assessments unless a parent actively opts them out. Parents who are not aware of the law or the practice will have their children subject to these evaluations without their knowledge or consent — especially if schools fail to give adequate notice of when they are administering these assessments.
AFL argued that the measure violates federal law and that “By forcing students to participate in secretive mental health screenings that may trigger child welfare investigations, Illinois is treating parents as suspects and families as subjects of state monitoring.”
The organization is requesting that the Education Department investigate the matter.
/1🚨BREAKING—AFL has filed a complaint with the Dept. of Education, urging an immediate investigation into Illinois’ new law forcing annual mental health screenings on children without parental consent—a clear violation of federal law and shocking expansion of state power. pic.twitter.com/fHVHRa5qo8
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) November 3, 2025
Schools collecting this information from their evaluations will “file a report with the Governor and the General Assembly that includes recommendations for implementation of mental health screenings in schools for students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12,” according to the legislation.
This is a horrible idea.
Illinois government might as well start putting cameras in everyone’s home to make sure children are not suffering mental health problems. While some parents might be comfortable with allowing government-run schools to administer mental health evaluations to their children, many would balk at such a practice — especially if they are not even aware of it.
There is absolutely no reason why schools should not require parental consent to implement these evaluations. Yet, here we are. This comes off as a sneaky way for the state to exert more control over how people parent their children.
I’ve written many stories about state governments taking people’s children under false allegations of abuse or neglect. A law like this would only make it easier for this to happen. Yes, we want our children to be mentally healthy. But this level of intrusion will cause more problems than it will solve.
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