Supporters of California’s 60,000 foster youth want the legislature and governor to create a statewide hotline that foster parents and children can call to receive immediate help. The hotline would operate 24 hours a day and be staffed by professionals trained in resolving and de-escalating conflicts.
Throughout California, low-income public-school students are guaranteed at least one free or low-cost healthy meal each school day. That same law doesn’t apply to public preschools or to child care programs operated by school districts or county offices of education that serve low-income children. But that could soon change.
Many teen victims do not tell their family or friends about the abuse, in part because they believe violence is “normal” in a relationship. Some fear not being believed or that their abusers will cause more harm to them or their loved ones.
Noting rising suicide rates and mental health problems among the state’s youth, a bill in the California Senate would require all new teachers to have mental health first-aid training.
Research has shown that drug reps influence doctors’ prescribing behavior. Los Angeles County has repurposed drug reps to sell syphilis testing to local doctors.
Fewer than half of children with Denti-Cal, the state’s low-income dental program, received preventative care at a dentist’s office in 2017. Still, that’s 20 percent more than did before the state improvements began.
Advocates for juvenile justice reform are both optimistic and wary of a proposal to put the California Health and Human Services Agency in charge of the state’s juvenile justice system.
The impact of stress and trauma on people’s physical and mental health looks set to become a central focus of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration in the wake of his appointment of the state’s first surgeon general.
Efforts to improve the health and education of California’s children would get a giant funding boost under Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget, a prospect that’s generating a swell of excitement among child advocacy groups.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual students in California’s middle and high schools are much more likely than their straight peers to feel depressed, abuse substances and skip school, according to a new report.