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About eight-in-ten Latino children face at least one difficult childhood experience and have fewer resources for nutrition, exercise and early childhood learning, especially pre-K, according to a report by Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. These early roadblocks affect future health and personal development, but researchers say there are solutions that work. The study, released Tuesday is “a comprehensive research review on what is the current state of early Latino childhood...

According to a report released last month by the Public Policy Institute of California, nearly 20 percent of children in the state lived below the poverty line in 2016, well above the rate in 2007 of about 17 percent. “I think California, at the state level, is actually leading the way in a number of regards when it comes to identifying certain subgroups of children living in poverty,” said Jesse Hahnel, executive director of the National Center for Youth Law, non-profit law firm that...

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan on Tuesday that seeks to reduce the number of “disconnected” youth in the county, especially foster youth and formerly incarcerated young people. The goal of the regional effort is to improve the educational, workforce, housing and well-being outcomes of youth ages 16 to 24. According to a recent report , about one in every six young people in Los Angeles County is not enrolled in school and are not working. That’s about 207,440...

Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am . 2012 January Responding to Students with PTSD in Schools Sheryl Kataoka, MD, MSHS, Audra Langley, PhD, Marleen Wong, PhD, Shilpa Baweja, MA, and Bradley Stein, MD, PhD The prevalence of trauma exposure among youth is a major public health concern, with a third of adolescents nationally reporting that they have been in a physical fight in the past twelve months and 9% having been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. Studies have...

After hours of testimony, the state Board of Education Thursday rejected two history textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, but approved 10 others based on new history social sciences guidelines. Following nearly eight hours of emotional pleas from Hindus and Indian American, as well as advocates for the LGBTQ community requesting fair historical representations in K-8 textbooks, the state Board of Education endorsed the recommendations of an advisory panel. When Board President Mike...

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved implementation of a program, Tuesday, Oct. 31, under which the homeless and low-income seniors and disabled residents of Riverside County would be able to purchase hot meals from restaurants, using their public welfare debit cards. The Restaurant Meals Program is a CalFresh initiative managed by the California Department of Social Services and was first put forward in 2004 in various locations throughout the state. According to county...

Mental illness cases have risen in California, while treatment and funding have not kept up. Every Southern California county has experienced an upward trend in the rate at which children under 18 years are hospitalized for a mental health issue. “The mental health system has been plagued by gaps in services, access and funding,” says Dr.Clayton with St. Joseph Hoag Health. “People with severe mental health and substance abuse conditions struggle to receive needed care in their communities...

Almost 2,000 people died in California last year of opioid overdoses as a sprawling epidemic made its way to the west coast. Where is the death toll the worst? The California mapped out where the state's opioid death rates were the highest in 2016 - and all are in locations that lack Medication Assisted Treatment facilities, which are also mapped here. To read more of Harold Pierce's article, please click here. Harold Pierce covers education and health for The Californian.

After successfully reducing expulsions in its K-12 schools , California is now moving to restrict the practice with even younger children — at the preschool level. To that end, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation last month that bars state-subsidized preschool programs from expelling kids unless an exhaustive process aimed at supporting the child and family is followed first. Children can be expelled from preschool as a result of any number of aggressive behaviors that could jeopardize the...

More than one million children in California have a special health care need. These children have chronic physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional conditions that require more than routine health and related services. Sixty-one percent of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) have had one more adverse experience. Understanding the factors that impact these children and their families is crucial to lifelong health and wellness. Kidsdata.org , a program of the Lucile Packard...

Suspensions and expulsions in California schools have decreased dramatically over the past five years. Here’s a look at the five-year suspension and expulsion rates at schools throughout the state. In the database, susp. stands for suspension and exp. stands for expulsion. https://edsource.org/2017/look-up-suspension-and-expulsion-rates-for-california-schools/589709

School suspensions and expulsions in California public schools have dropped dramatically among all racial and ethnic groups over the past five years but a significant gap remains for African-American students, according to new state data released Wednesday. In the 2016-17 school year, the suspension rate of African-American students in California public schools was 9.8 percent. Still, that rate was significantly lower than it was in 2011-12, when the rate for African-American students was...