Lawmakers tend to be good at getting things somewhat right.

Sometimes logical plans lack feasible funding. Occasionally, good ends rely on questionable means.

The latter is a good way to understand Senate Bill 1560, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed a week ago today. Under the plan, according to Capitol News Illinois, the State Board of Education and a children’s behavioral health team from Pritzker’s office will develop procedures and make materials available by September 2026 to pave the way for annual mental health screenings in all public schools starting in the fall of 2027.

No serious person is opposed to the idea of mental health. Anyone who has survived into adulthood understands the value of getting a good start in life, and anyone who has been a student or worked with even a small group of people grasps the concept of how the challenges one or two individuals face can set the tone for the entire community.

That said (and plenty more, if you’re familiar with my past work), it’s fair to wonder if asking our schools to execute this function is the ideal arrangement.

While reserving the right to modify judgment once the program fully develops, at this early stage, it seems like another task piled on an already burdened infrastructure, especially if any of the onus goes beyond school nurses and psychologists or social workers.

It’s one thing to check every kid’s head for lice or report when a student seems to have trouble reading the big board from the back of the room. Mental health is a far more complex issue. As the father of four, I’ve filled out pediatricians’ “is this kid well adjusted?” questionnaire dozens of times, with some of my kids aged into the phase where the doctors ask questions with me in another room.

Never once in those experiences have I – someone personally committed to removing the stigma from, and increasing access to, counseling and therapy – wished my kids were getting those questions in a K-12 setting instead of a medical office.

And yeah, I’m the same guy who just complained federal health care laws make it impossible for the state to improve the insurance market, so it would be discordant to argue the General Assembly should’ve instead compelled annual well child visits with a mental health screening as a condition of attending public school.

Parents will be able to opt out, and the law forces the state budget to cover costs. But privacy and school staff workload concerns persist despite the presence of a professional community already suited to identify and help kids.

Government must be sure it doesn’t enact solutions that create problems. Hopefully, this isn’t one of those situations.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.