Mental Health

Illinois legislation passed in 2024, calls for creating a mechanism for determining the capacity and readiness of schools to implement universal mental health screening. A 2022 survey of Illinois children ages 3-17 years old documents the strong need for assistance overall with parents and guardians indicating 21% of the children had a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral problem. View Fact Sheet SB726 and download below.

Resources

Resources for Child Advocacy in Illinois

Act Now Illinois
actnowillinois.org

BEACON (Behavioral Health Care and Ongoing Navigation) care portal
https://beacon.illinois.gov/

Catalyst Chicago
http://catalyst-chicago.org/

Child Care Association of Illinois
http://www.cca-il.org/

Children’s Advocate for Change
https://childrensadvocates.org/

Community Renewal Society
communityrenewalsociety.org

Illinois Action for Children
actforchildren.org

Illinois CASA
illinoiscasa.org

Northern Illinois Annual Conference
umcnic.org

Ounce of Prevention Fund
theounce.org

Protect Our Kids (Kids Above All)
https://www.kidsaboveall.org/landing/protect-our-kids/

National Resources for Child Advocacy

Bureau for At-Risk Youth
http://www.at-risk.com/

Child Trends
http://www.childtrends.org/

Child Welfare League of America
http://www.cwla.org/

Children’s Defense Fund
childrensdefense.org

Children’s Sabbath
childrensdefense.org/programs/faithbased/faith-based-action-programs-pages/childrens-sabbaths/National-Observance-of-Children-s-Sabbaths.html

Children’s Sunday & Children’s Sabbath from UM Discipleship Ministries
umcdiscipleship.org/resources/childrens-sunday-and-childrens-sabbath

The Future of Children
http://www.futureofchildren.org/

National Association for the Education of Young Children
https://www.naeyc.org/

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
https://www.ojjdp.gov/

Teaching for Change
http://www.teachingforchange.org/