Student Stress and the Need for Positive Coping
Students in Illinois face a growing crisis of stress and mental health. Nearly 45% of children have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), and 29% of high school students report poor mental health in the past 30 days. Yet schools have historically lacked evidence-based practices and programs to help students build positive coping skills, leaving children to navigate stress without the tools they need.
In response, Illinois enacted S.B. 2872 (Public Act 103-0764; effective January 1, 2025). This bill allows school districts to set aside at least 20 minutes per week for student relaxation activities, including meditation, breathing, stretching, mindful movement, and yoga. Illinois is among the first states to codify this range of well-being practices. The diversity of activities listed creates both a dynamic opportunity to address student stress and a responsibility to effectively implement activities that are appropriate to students’ needs. This policy spotlight examines the evidence supporting Illinois’s new law and offers actionable recommendations for turning policy into practice.
What the Evidence Shows: Mindfulness Works
Decades of research—including multiple studies by the authors (Dariotis et al., 2016, 2023, 2025, 2026)—consistently demonstrate that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) produce measurable benefits for students from preschool through high school:
▪ Reduced behavioral and emotional difficulties: lower rumination, fewer intrusive thoughts, and decreased emotional arousal.
▪ Improved emotional regulation and impulse control: greater ability to recognize emotions, empathize, and take others’ perspectives.
▪ Stronger academic performance: consistent positive effects on academic outcomes according to meta-analytic evidence (Verhaeghen, 2023).
▪ Increased physiological benefits: improved nervous system regulation that buffers students against stress reactivity, even as young as preschool-aged.
▪ Additional peer multiplier effects: transfer of practices by students to siblings, peers, and family members, which extended impact beyond the classroom at no additional cost.
Recent evidence further underscores these findings. A school-based mindfulness program demonstrated significant benefits for marginalized high school students in urban communities (Dariotis et al., 2023). Another study (Gould et al., 2012) among elementary school aged children found mindfulness helped reduce negative coping strategies that are beyond one’s immediate control (referred to as involuntary engagement – like rumination, intrusive thoughts, emotional arousal) with varying levels of effectiveness among youth reported depressive symptoms (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Effectiveness of mindfulness intervention for high-risk youth by depressive symptom level.
Source: adapted from Gould et al. (2012)
Figure 1 demonstrates that, on average, everyone can take away some benefit from mindfulness practices. Importantly, however, the students who started the program with the highest baseline symptoms benefited the most. Students with elevated depression reported fewer involuntary responses to stress after mindfulness programming compared to youth reporting medium and low depressive symptoms.
Why It Matters for Policymakers
The new law creates an important foundation by formally prioritizing self-care, but this alone is insufficient. Without guidance, funding, and support, teachers face implementation challenges. Even well-intentioned practices can be misapplied, as when a calming corner intended to reduce arousal can be misused as a punitive timeout space.
Teacher preparation is equally critical.
Serving high-need populations should also guide implementation, with culturally responsive adaptations ensuring that these practices resonate across diverse student backgrounds. Without explicit attention to both educator readiness and cultural relevance, the law’s promise risks going unrealized in the schools that need it most.
If implemented statewide through evidence-based programs, mindfulness interventions could turn modest individual-level effects into meaningful population-level improvements in school attendance, teacher retention, and academic performance, with students from high-stress and under-resourced communities standing to benefit most.
Recommended Actions
Looking Ahead
Illinois S.B. 2872 creates the conditions for a systemic, preventive approach to student wellbeing long supported by research. The question now is whether state, federal, and philanthropic leaders will invest the resources needed to realize its promise for every Illinois student.
