On-the-Ground—Advocating for Student Mental Health: The Power of Data and Programs

Mental health challenges continue to plague Illinois’ students, permeating the fabric of our school communities in both the K-12 and postsecondary spaces. While student mental health impacts every type of student, two professionals discuss why Illinois cannot ignore how students from marginalized communities are uniquely affected by these issues. 

Making the Case for Data

One such community is the LGBTQ+ student population. Daniel Wilson, a PhD candidate in the Policy Studies in Urban Education program in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Chicago argues for increased, quality assessment of these populations in the postsecondary sector. 

Pulling from national datasets, Wilson recently submitted a paper examining the impacts of financial hardship and housing instability on mental health and academic performance in LGBTQ+ Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) student communities. He found that a lack of access to these basic needs led to diminished mental health, prompting a negative perception of their sense of belonging in the larger campus community. When compounded, these factors hurt academic success. These impacts were even greater for transgender and non-binary BIPOC students. At the Illinois state level, this also rings true. According to Advance Illinois’ The State We’re In 2025: A Report on Public Education in Illinois, 63.2% of LGBTQ+ students and 75.9% of transgender college students felt that their emotional or mental challenges have more recurring ramifications on their academics. In 2024, 46.5% of postsecondary students in Illinois reported their mental health has impacted their academic performance in the last month, an increase from 24.6% in 2007. While sobering, this data should compel Illinois to make strides toward more intentional assessment of their LGBTQ+ student communities, specifically at the institutional level.

Wilson highlights that data on LGBTQ+ students is often not institutionalized across educational systems and assessment methods are often incomplete and inadequate. For example, gender identity is often collected on a binary system and sexual orientation is often not collected at all. Without data that accurately measures how mental health concerns distinctly affect LGBTQ+ students, institutions cannot provide resources and services designed to mitigate the impact of these challenges. Put plainly- LGBTQ+ students’ experiences become invisible. Wilson reflects “It is important that policy makers think of ways to accurately and meaningfully collect data on LGBTQ+ people so that they are able to be visible within data systems.” 

Wilson reflects that while it is not misleading to say that Illinois is supportive of LGBTQ+ communities, LGBTQ+ students in Illinois do face barriers to basic needs that are detrimental to their mental health. As an advocate for improved assessment of LGBTQ+ students, he contends that data can forge meaningful partnerships in service to these communities. “LGBTQ+ data needs to be institutionalized...it could be used to inform [the exact] number of LGBTQ + students that are experiencing food insecurity, housing insecurity, so how can we then ensure that we are building partnerships and cultivating a community of care to support LGBTQ+ communities.” But before those partnerships and programs are built, good data must be collected. 

It's clear that the role of data is significant. When collected and assessed correctly, it can be a powerful impetus for programmatic development uniquely designed to meet student mental health needs. Ngozi Harris, Director of Program and Staff Development for the Working on Womanhood (WOW) program at Youth Guidance, speaks to the realm of possibilities when data is put into action. 

Data in Action: Strong Student Programming

Founded in 2011 by a group of female social workers led by former Youth Guidance Director Gail Day, WOW is a school-based counseling program that supports young girls in grades 6-12 who have been exposed to trauma in the development of their social-emotional competencies. The program is informed by Cognitive-Behavioral, Acceptance Commitment, and Narrative Therapy and is specifically structured as a group counseling program to address the social isolation commonly felt among young girls.  One of WOW’s core values is providing opportunity for students to be in community with their peers and to learn emotional intelligence. When schools reported the impact of the Becoming a Man (BAM) program’s group counseling for its male students, the potential of what would become WOW became even more apparent. 

WOW continues to be critical given that mental health challenges among K-12 students in Illinois have persisted, as highlighted by The State We’re In 2025 report. Increasing percentages (29.6% in 2009 to 40.4% in 2023) of students in Illinois have reported feeling sadness and hopelessness. More specifically, female high school students are more likely to experience these feelings, with 51.6% of female students reporting feelings of sadness and hopelessness compared to 25% of male students in 2023.

Echoing Wilson’s arguments regarding the postsecondary sector, Harris further underscores how powerful a student’s sense of belonging can be in determining their academic performance. Primarily serving young, Black and Latina girls in under resourced Chicago communities, Harris notes that WOW removes the burden on students to find a sense of belonging, which in turns cultivates space for them redirect their energy into learning: “We know that trauma will impact how you are able to engage in education, how you will be able to engage in relationships...when you experience trauma, it starts to rewire your brain to see the world as a threat. If you’re walking around seeing the world as a threat, everything becomes a threat. That means all your energy, all your resources are focused in on ‘I'm here, I’m locked in on surviving. I’m doing whatever it takes to survive, mentally, physically, emotionally.’ It is unreasonable to expect students carrying such immense burdens to engage fully in a math or English course.”

Prior to the pandemic, WOW conducted mental health assessments to screen for anxiety, trauma, depression, and PTSD exposure. A core part of the WOW model, these assessments informed how to grow the program. During the shift back to in-person programming, WOW refined its curriculum to better incorporate best practices that can support students’ feelings of social isolation and ongoing anxieties caused by adversities faced during pandemic. For example, WOW has refined its curriculum to include sessions dedicated to unpacking the complex role of social media in young women’s lives. Participants can explore how social media can be incorporated into their lives healthily, with the understanding that social media can serve as both as an escape as well as a trigger. 

Harris notes that due to broader community issues related to resource availability, schools are the ideal space for reaching students. Students facing trauma exposure often carry familial and work responsibilities that limit the time available to join counseling programs after the school day.

Looking Ahead

It is imperative to acknowledge that there are community-led efforts in Illinois to address mental health related concerns for LGBTQ+ and students of color, as demonstrated in the protest against UI health system’s pause on gender affirming care for patients under 19 years old. As the new findings on student mental health and well-being in Illinois suggest, it is equally important to recognize that there is substantial opportunity for both the state of Illinois and education institutions to expand how they mitigate these challenges. Building a healthy foundation means creating assessment methods that capture evolving nuances related to identity, institutionalizing that data, and funding programs like WOW that reflect what the data shows. Strong data and programming are core pillars to building resilient student communities, which ultimately supports their holistic success. 

Isabel Enad is a Senior Community Engagement Associate for Advance Illinois.

Federal Impact—Resilient in the Face of Cuts

When Jennifer Smith was a third grader, she had a clear view of the priorities that would drive her as a future teacher. 

She would hold English everyday – less so the language, she explains, but for the skills language arts cultivate and exercise in critical thinking, grammar, in analysis, in effectively communicating. 

She’d give homework, “because it builds intelligence and makes (students) smarter,” she said in a short essay she had written as an elementary school student. 

And she’d make sure her class tries new things, “so they can learn more. They can also get a variety.” 

Jennifer Smith knew in the third grade she wanted to be an educator. The values she wrote about in this essay hold true through today.

Decades later, Smith still holds onto these concerns (and has accumulated others), today working as a middle school science teacher who believes education should be immersive, relevant, and empowering. And her prescient essay has come along, too, often found in her classrooms over time. 

In recent months, however, federal funding cuts have made it increasingly difficult for her to maintain the high standards she sets for herself and her students. She persists, nevertheless. Three professional development (PD) programs she was scheduled to attend this summer—focused on social-emotional learning (SEL), bioengineering, and science instruction—were canceled due to revoked grant funding from the National Institutes for Health and the National Science Foundation. One research project in particular would have explored literacy in the science classroom. These PDs weren’t just enrichment; for someone who pours hours into preparing for lessons, they are essential to Smith’s teaching practice of making science real and relevant for her students. 

“When those opportunities disappear, it’s not just me who loses, it’s them,” she said.

Her approach to teaching is deeply hands-on and inquiry-based. She teaches 6th and 7th grade science from a portable classroom with no running water, yet she still manages to conduct full lab experiences including dissections and hydrology experiments by coordinating with colleagues to borrow lab space during their prep periods. Where another teacher might throw their hands up in such a predicament and stop doing labs, Smith is determined that her students have the full experience. 

Smith also regularly collaborates with university researchers at the University of Illinois, inviting them into her classroom to expose students to real-world science and career pathways. “I don’t know what tech will look like in five years,” she said, “but if I can connect my students with people and places, those relationships will be stronger than even the academic experiences I could give them.” 

As a virtual mentor for new teachers across Illinois, Smith along with nearly 300 other educators were shocked when the federal government announced it was rescinding its extensions for ESSER dollars, which funded the initiative. This meant the state could no longer pay its mentors despite the agreement they had signed. Smith and her colleagues worked from March through May without compensation.

Only in recent weeks were they notified that they were going to get funding after all, receiving pay for the time they had worked. Smith, a single mother of two teenagers who is constantly juggling multiple hats and jobs, was fortunate to have not relied on the mentoring income for survival but knows that was not the case for everyone. 

Despite the pressures, Smith remains committed to education. She holds three master’s degrees, is National Board Certified in science, and is currently pursuing her doctorate. She spends her summers writing curriculum, mentoring future educators, and attending PDs, when they’re not canceled. “Everything I do, even my side hustles, is about education,” she said. “Because my kids need to eat, but also because I believe in this work.” 

Still, the emotional toll of the federal changes and their impact cannot be avoided. “It’s demoralizing,” Smith said. “Every week I open my email and brace myself for more bad news. I’m doing everything I can to keep the same opportunities for my students, but at what cost?” 

It is the belief that small actions can make a difference that keeps her going. “I try to find one thing each day that can have a positive impact—so my students know I care, and my community knows someone is listening.” 

Bravetta Hassell is Director of Communications for Advance Illinois.

Bringing Visibility to the Impacts of Federal Changes on Illinois Education

This month, news dropped that the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) and at least six universities in our state were suspending a scholarship program that the U.S. Department of Justice called unconstitutional for using race as a qualification.

It was hard to find the name of the program that was suspended – even in the DOJ’s press release – but having confirmed it with a number of credible sources including a program participant, the effort is the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty (DFI) program, an initiative intended to increase the number of minority full-time tenure track faculty and staff at Illinois’ two- and four-year, public and private colleges and universities. 

Decades of research show that when educators share racial and ethnic identities with their students, student academic and non academic outcomes improve. At the college level, student and faculty/staff diversity play a considerable role in underrepresented students’ decision to stay in school. But according to IBHE, ‘the average student attending a public college or university outside the City of Chicago is unlikely to have more than one course with an African American faculty member and unlikely to have even one course with a Latino faculty member during his or her college years.’ This mismatch in representation isn’t unique to Illinois, but plays out in communities across our country and stifles what’s possible for our students and those who seek to teach and mentor them. 

In an effort to ensure that the many and varied impacts of federal changes on education do not go unnoticed or unheard - like the details of the DFI news slipping between the cracks - we are both listening for and actively gathering narratives from students, families, educators, providers, system leaders, and researchers who are living through the effects of education policy changes on their work and lives. But we need your help.

If you are interested in sharing your story for us to uplift on our blog, on social, and our ever-expanding newsletter list of lawmakers, education, researchers, philanthropists, journalists and more, please complete the form linked below. You may use your real name, a pseudonym, or simply list “anonymous.” We only ask that you provide a valid email address so we can follow up with you. 

It is crucial that these experiences are shared so that others may gain awareness and insight into what is happening and how our system, the people who power it, and the people served by it are being affected but also responding to changes. 

COMPLETE THE FORM TODAY → https://bit.ly/3REq97H

Reaching, Engaging Communities to Build Support for Equity-Driven Public Policy

This summer, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (4th District) and Representative Carol Ammons (103rd District) introduced SB 3965, the Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities bill. Based on recommendations from the state's Equitable Funding Commission, this historic bill centers student need and considers factors not previously accounted for in higher education funding. These factors include a public university's unique mission and size, student demographics and need, and expected revenue. In determining the distance between what an institution needs to serve students versus what it expects to bring in a given year, the formula calculates the institutions “adequacy gap,” allowing the state to allocate funding in an equitable manner.   

Once SB3965 was filed, the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding (CTHEF) began organizing “listening sessions” across Illinois public university campuses. The Time is Now: Equitably Funding Our Public Universities sessions engage with university communities – college students, university faculty and staff across the state of Illinois in discussions about how more adequate and equitable institutional funding can improve student experiences and lead to more equitable outcomes in college completion and degree attainment.  

 “Community engagement provides a platform for creating awareness of public policies such as SB 3965,” said Isabel Enad, a Senior Community Engagement Associate at Advance Illinois who has been collaborating with other core partners of the Coalition – the Partnership for College Completion, Young Invincibles, and Women Employed — to develop and facilitate such listening sessions. "By socializing and championing policy proposals together, our advocacy for our students' needs strengthens.” 

For Enad, engaging the community encourages widespread participation in increasing public awareness about the bill. The goal for listening sessions is to bring not only higher education leaders into dialogue about policy proposals but to engage members of the community who may not already have existing knowledge of higher education funding but are passionate about advancing access in education.  

Enad said that while the agenda of the listening sessions may differ slightly from one university to another, the primary purpose of these events is to make sure that all attendees have the information and space needed to develop their thoughts about SB 3965. This goal is kept at the core of planning for these sessions, one among many strategies community engagement uses to garner participation and interest. Each listening session is broken into two main components: the presentation on the bill itself, and a portion dedicated audience participation, whether that is a Q&A and/or roundtable discussion. In addition, a post-event survey provided to participants serves as another opportunity to raise questions or express opinions on the bill and learn about more ways to engage with the CTHEF.   

“We are at a critical time in higher education and are actively working to ensure that funding is adequate and equitable,” Enad said. “This means that people should have the opportunity to ask questions, critique, and advocate for this bill.”

A recent listening session held in October at Northern Illinois University (NIU) featured a presentation, panel discussion and roundtable discussions. Women Employed President and CEO Cherita Ellens moderated the program’s panel that included NIU President Dr. Lisa Freeman, NIU faculty member Dr. Simón Weffer, Hernandez, and NIU student Jatavion Young. The panel discussion explored the importance of students having access to the supports and resources they need to persist in attaining their college degree. Young, a junior, shared how some of his friends have been unable to continue their college education due to a lack of resource support. Were the bill to pass, Young said it would be important for additional funding to be invested 'in programs that address individual student needs—academic, financial, and mental health. “Without resources, students don’t know where to go,” he said. 

Jelani Saadiq, who leads Government Relations at Advance Illinois, said that hosting listening sessions such as these makes a difference in helping legislation move forward.  While community engagement teams work to build coalitions with those directly impacted by legislation, government relations teams push for policy and legislative change with the support of coalitions. The primary goal is to ensure that any systems-level change reflects the input of those who are most impacted by the policies. The listening sessions serve as an avenue for members of the community to learn the intricacies of a topic and ask questions. When community members understand a topic, they are prepared to participate in the elevation of a related bill. 

“Higher education policy should reflect the unique needs of universities in Illinois,” Enad said. “Listening sessions are an important strategy in ensuring that policy can respond to on-the-ground experiences as accurately as possible.” 

Eucarol Juarez is the Senior Communications Associate for Advance Illinois.

Learn more about the Coalition for Transforming Higher Educations Funding’s The Time is Now Listening Sessions.

The Success Network: Supporting Partnerships and Coalitions that Strengthen Student Opportunities and Outcomes

A few short weeks ago, the Illinois Education and Career Success Network wrapped up its 11th annual conference. This year’s convening, Awareness to Action: Promoting Equity in Education and Careers, was targeted to secondary and postsecondary education partners, workforce development entities, community-based organizations, advocacy organizations, state agency partners, and national partners who are interested in equitably increasing the number of individuals with a college degree or postsecondary credential in Illinois. Across various sessions, attendees delved into topics such as access to quality education, workforce development, and eliminating systemic barriers that hinder opportunities.  

 “It was wonderful to see over 360 participants from across the State come together to learn, collaborate, and share best practices,” said Cheryl Flores, Director of Community Engagement at Advance Illinois. "It was inspiring to be with so many leaders with such a strong commitment to ensuring students are supported as they progress to and through postsecondary education and into the workforce.”  

 In 2009, the Illinois P-20 Council,  a statewide council that makes recommendations to the Governor, Illinois General Assembly, and state agencies for developing a sustainable statewide system of high-quality education and support from birth through adulthood, set a goal for Illinois to increase the number of individuals with high-quality college degrees and postsecondary credentials to 60% by 2025. While the P-20 Council and state agencies monitor progress against this goal and advocate for state policies that support it, it was clear that local effort and leadership was essential if Illinois was going to move the needle on getting students to and through postsecondary and into the workforce.  

 So in 2013, Advance Illinois, Education Systems Center at Northern Illinois University (EdSystems), and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) collaborated to launch the 60 by 25 Network in 2013. The goal? To advance equitable postsecondary attainment in the state by working in partnership with state and local leaders to develop actionable strategies grounded in relevant data, research and best practice.  

 Eleven years later—and having renamed itself the Illinois Education and Career Success Network to make clear that it is committed to change beyond 2025– the Success Network supports communities around the state, working with stakeholders to gather and use data to set goals and monitor impact and collaborate with partners to develop sensible strategies to increase meaningful and equitable postsecondary attainment. The annual Success Network conference allows these networks and communities to come together to share best practices and lessons learned. And the interactive Leadership Community Dashboard helps communities visualize regional educational trend data, and group and compare their information with state averages.  

This year’s conference also spotlighted some timely and high-profile issues. Advance Illinois delivered presentations on "Why Illinois Needs an Equitable, Adequate, and Stable Higher Education Funding Approach" and "The State of Our Educator Pipeline: Strengths, Opportunities, and the Early Impact of COVID-19”. In the higher education funding session, Advance Illinois Senior Policy Associate Eyob Villa-Moges and Senior Policy Advisor Kelsey Bakken discussed challenges in Illinois’ current approach to funding its public universities, and walked the audience through recommendations being considered by the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding to make college more affordable, effective, and more equitable. [NOTE: The Commision has since released its recommendations and propose to increase overall funding to ensure each university has the resources they need to support their unique student body and mission, and to allocate new funds to universities furthest from full funding.  

“Illinois has disinvested in its public higher education system for two decades, and even in years when it attempted to increase funding, it did so using an historically inequitable system that has been driven more by political negotiation than student need. Sadly, the status quo does not serve either students or the state well," Villa-Moges said. “The Commission’s recommendations give us a blueprint to do better, enabling institutions to meet the challenges of educating their student body, both today, and tomorrow." 

And there may not be a hotter topic in the state than ongoing shortages in teachers, paraprofessionals and school counselors and social workers, and the reality that our educators do not come close to matching the diversity of our student population. Jim O’Connor, Project Director at Advance Illinois, shed some light on where we are making progress and where we still have challenges during a presentation “The State of Our Educator Pipeline 2023: Strengths, Opportunities, and the Early Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic”.  Jim noted that the supply of new teachers and principals has increased in recent years (and at a faster rate than the country as a whole), as has the diversity of candidates going into the profession, and districts have added over 5,000 new positions. However, many more educators are using emergency licensure (short-term approvals and provisional licenses), and the supply of paraprofessionals has declined.  As importantly, educator shortages are not the same regionally or by position. Vacancies are concentrated mainly in remote rural and urban districts, and vacancy rates are especially high in Special Education and Bilingual Education. Finally, and sadly, vacancies disproportionately impact Black and Latinx students, students from low-income households, English learners, and students with IEPs. As part of this session, Briana Morales, 2023 Illinois Teacher of the Year and Josh Stafford, Superintendent, Vienna High School, presented teacher retention strategies that are working for their school communities.  

 “If we want all students to have the option to earn a postsecondary degree or credential, we have to care about everything from preschool and home visiting to the strength and diversity of our educators to the affordability of our community colleges and universities and their ability to support every student to and through school,” said Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois.  “And that takes teamwork. So we look forward to the work ahead and the many and powerful partnerships and coalitions and networks that are working everyday to make sure students have strong opportunities and outcomes.”