This Policy Brief is the first in a series of reports examining the design of state SCHIP programs as they near full implementation status. It explores, whether states in their enabling legislation establishing separate SCHIP programs confer upon eligible children an individual legal right to health insurance benefits (i.e., an individual entitlement) under state law, similar to the entitlement that Medicaid eligible children enjoy under federal law. The question of whether states guarantee necessary health coverage for low-income children through the creation of an individual entitlement is fundamental to the study of state policy making under SCHIP.