Tagged With "homeless students"
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2018 Community Stories from across the state
Thank you everyone for your help to create community stories highlighting the efforts happening to raise awareness about ACEs from across the state for 4CA’s 2018 Policymaker Education Day ! Attached find a 2018 version of the community stories detailing information about community ACEs initiatives from across the state. Please download and share. And see HERE for a list of CA ACEs Connection communities from across the state.
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2019 Economics of Child Abuse in Mendocino County
Mendocino recently shared 2019 data related to the economic impacts of child abuse. The attached documents are in a printable format.
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37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium Recap
"Speak Out! Confronting the Culture of Child Sexual Abuse and Secrecy" was the theme of Santa Clara County's 37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium which featured a Keynote conversation with Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast and current UCLA Assistant Gymnastics Coach Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn, and other athletes and survivors of former USA Gymnastics team doctor and serial child sex abuser Larry Nassar, earlier spoke to a U.S. Senate Subcommittee about a “culture of silence” more...
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A Guide to Increase Mental Health Services for Students - Project Cal-Well, CA Dept of Education, 2018
This guide is created by Project Cal-Well, with input from the Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup, to assist schools and districts to build capacity to better address mental health challenges among students. Learn about Project Cal-Well See Guide attached.
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A New Program Helps Foster Kids in Orange County Avoid Homelessness when They Age Out of Public Care [ocregister.com]
By Theresa Walker, The Orange County Register, December 20, 2019 For three years after he aged out of foster care, at age 18, Christian was homeless. During that time, he was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for six months and his speech and memory were affected. Over most of the last year he’s lived at The Link, a homeless shelter in Santa Ana. This week, Christian, now 22, moved into his own one-bedroom apartment, in Tustin. That change is the result of...
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A push for mental health care at colleges: Depression and anxiety ‘really eat up our kids’ (calmatters.org)
When student leaders from 23 California State University campuses came together last fall to set priorities for the academic year, improving campus mental health services received more nominations than any other issue. It beat out even that perennial concern, tuition costs. Cal State Student Association president Maggie White said she’s not surprised. “We’re seeing wait times at counseling centers that are exceeding two or three weeks, people turned away after a few appointments because...
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BCSD wellness centers provide free services for students as they head back to school [Bakersfield.com]
By Ema Sasic August 7, 2019 The first day of school is just a few days away and school supplies are not the only items parents need to cross off their back-to-school checklist. Bakersfield City School District's four wellness centers are encouraging parents to stop by to make sure their children have all their required immunizations before the first day of school and are ready for the upcoming school year. The district has recently opened school wellness centers to promote physical, mental...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Because of Andres Perez, 10,000+ Latinx parents in Northern California embrace trauma-informed parenting
Andres Perez immigrated to San Jose, Calif., from Mexico in 1990. He was 24 years old, undocumented, knew little English, lacked job skills, and had a pregnant wife to support. He hit the ground running by completing an ESL program in San Jose City College, and, while working days at any job he could find, at night he earned an associate of science degree with specialization in electronics and computers in 2002. Fortunately for thousands of Latinx parents and their children, he never worked...
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Being homeless during coronavirus adds hardship for California college student [edsource.org]
By Marisa Martinez, EdSource, April 17, 2020 Mornings for student Cristina Zetino at California State University, Los Angeles are as normal as they can be. Before she packs up her things, she checks in with the family that offers her an occasional place to lay her head for the night. The self-described “couch surfer” alternates between three different homes throughout the week while juggling work and classes. Always in her possession are three bags: “One bag for school, one for clothes and a...
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Bill Would Boost Mental Health Counselors At CSUs (capradio.org)
Mental health advocates say anxiety is up among college students dealing with things like debt and the cost of living. That's prompted a push for more counselors at California State University campuses. CSU campuses would be required to have at least one full time mental health counselor for every 1,000 students, under legislation passed by the Senate Education Committee. Few campuses meet that standard now. Jared Giarrusso is with the California State Student Association. He says students...
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Bill would give protected school leave to teen parents (k-12daily.com)
(Calif.) With an important legislative deadline quickly approaching, Senate education committee members passed about a dozen bills last week targeting topics including time off for teen parents, statewide assessment options and charter school transparency. AB 1951 would require the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to approve a nationally recognized high school assessment–such as the SAT or ACT–that districts can administer to students instead of the grade 11 California Assessment...
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Black People Disproportionately Homeless in California [calmatters.org]
By Kate Cimini, Cal Matters, October 5, 2019 Just a few years ago, Yolanda Harraway was living in a tent on the streets of Chinatown in Salinas, an agricultural hub struggling with a growing homeless community. Harraway’s slide into homelessness began when her son was taken from her custody by Child Protective Services. She struggled with addiction and had several felonies on her record, which cut her off from various state and government-funded housing options. She also had a hard time...
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Budget realities challenging California school districts’ restorative justice programs [EdSource]
By David Washburn, July 1, 2019 Legions of California educators have been trained in recent years in restorative justice, which is no longer considered an obscure alternative to traditional school discipline. Yet even in districts with well-established programs, finding and keeping funding for it remains a challenge. Earlier this year, for example, the Oakland Unified School District board approved a package of austere budget cuts that appeared to have dismantled the district’s program,...
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"Building Violence Free Schools & Communities " ONE DAY CONFERENCE!
Tulare County CAPC is proud to provide this ONE DAY conference on "Building Violence Free Schools & Communities" featuring 3 nationally know speakers with first hand experience and expertise in the field of violence prevention. Dr. Melissa Reeves (Columbine, CO shooting) Scarlett Lewis (Parent of a child lost in Sandy Hook shooting) and Clayton Douglas (former student who planned a shooting) will provide us with critical knowledge and skills in violence prevention. **** FLYER AND...
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CA Governor's 2020-21 Budget Proposal Summary
Governor Newsom proposed his 2020-21 budget on Friday. Here are some highlights from the perspective of support for children and families from Children Now. See attached for the full summary report that summarizes funding related to child welfare, health, K- 12 education, early childhood, emergency preparedness and response, and adverse childhood experiences. The Governor’s budget proposes a number of initiatives, investments, and restructuring to transform the health care system to better...
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AB-2691 Pupil health: pupil and school staff trauma: Trauma-Informed Schools Initiative
Being a proponent of trauma-informed care and incorporating ACEs science, I was so excited to learn today that there is an assembly bill in California (AB-2691) addressing both of these! "This bill would establish within the State Department of Education the Trauma-Informed Schools Initiative to address the impact of adverse childhood experiences on the educational outcomes of California pupils. The bill would require the department to take specified actions, on or before December 31, 2019,...
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ACEs Connection “Map the Movement” now includes an up-to-date section on laws and resolutions
Photo credit: Texasarchitects.org An updated map of laws and resolutions addressing ACEs science and trauma-informed policies is now available in the “Laws and Resolutions” section of Map the Movement (you can also find "Map the Movement" on the navigation bar on the ACEs Connection home page). The earliest law on the map was passed in the state of Washington in 2011, creating an ACEs science public-private partnership. The data base of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is...
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Addressing Homelessness Is High on Governor Newsom’s Agenda [chcf.org]
By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, March 2, 2020 Governor Gavin Newsom made an unconventional move in his second annual State of the State address — he devoted almost the entire speech to California’s housing and homelessness crisis. It is clearly on the minds of many Californians. A recent CHCF and SSRS statewide poll found that more than 8 out of 10 state residents say addressing homelessness is an “extremely important” or “very important” issue. “The problem has...
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Adversity and resiliency: The case for integrating ACEs and Strengthening Families approaches
Attached is the PowerPoint that was presented by Diane Kellegrew, Jane Stevens and Katie Albright in a webinar April 16. And below is the slide that ID's the presenters.
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Advocate for Early Childhood Programs in Your School District
California’s funding model for school districts is known as the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Under LCFF, school districts have flexibility—and an unprecedented opportunity—to spend district dollars on early childhood education. Researchers, economists, and educators all agree: early childhood programs set kids up for success in school and in life. Now is the time for district leaders to make sure that students in your community are getting off to a strong start. And you can help...
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An Agenda for the Future: Mapping the Terrain of California Education [cacollaborative.org]
Meeting 33 June 22-23, 2017 Sacramento, California Changes at the federal level and an upcoming California election are shaping the social, economic, and political context in which K-12 districts operate. The California Collaborative on District Reform convened for a two-day meeting to step back, reflect, and take stock of the road ahead. Meeting participants listened to research-based presentations that helped to illustrate the postsecondary world that schools are preparing students for,...
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Analysis: Lack of Beds Keeps Homeless on the Streets Longer [thesungazette.com]
By Reggie Ellis, The Sun-Gazette, February 5, 2020 Visalia has the highest percentage of homeless people with highest need in the entire country. The Sun-Gazette reported last week that Tulare and Kings County, where most of the homeless population lives in Visalia, had the highest percentage nationwide of unsheltered, chronically homeless people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. Nearly one-third of the...
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As schools adopt social-emotional programs, a new guide offers help [EdSource.org]
Parents, teachers and students streamed into the library of Palo Alto’s Gunn High School on a warm evening this spring to hear about a new plan , coming this fall, to help high school students develop empathy and coping skills through “social and emotional learning.” For starters, the audience wanted the answer to a question that has dogged the jargon phrase for years: What is social and emotional learning and why should schools get involved in it? The term is bedeviled by abstractions, but...
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At Cal State, student homelessness has been hidden until now [LATimes.com]
Racing from her last class of the day at Cal State Long Beach, Shellv Candler had about an hour to get to Wilmington. Her mother was trying to save her a bed at the Doors of Hope Women’s Shelter, but curfew was 6:45 sharp. The college student’s commute by bus and train was stressful. But she and her mother had been through worse. The foreclosure of the family home. Evictions. Relatives who could give them shelter for only so long. Some nights, with nowhere to go, they’d ridden the bus until...
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California Advocates Celebrate as Governor Signs Law to Address Overuse of Suspensions in Schools! [fixschooldiscipline.com]
By Fix School Discipline, September 16, 2019 SB 419 will help keep students in school, increase student success, and increase high school graduation Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to eliminate suspensions for minor misbehaviors and protect California students from discriminatory and harmful school climates. Under Senate Bill 419, which was introduced by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), school districts will no longer be permitted to use defiance or disruption, as justification...
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California bill would allow homeless college students to sleep in campus parking lots [The Hill]
A bill proposed in the California State Assembly would allow homeless community college students to sleep in their vehicles in campus parking lots, according to The Sacramento Bee . The bill is reportedly aimed at combatting California’s increasing homeless problem — particularly among college students — as property values and rent prices soar in the state. The legislation, [ AB 302 ] introduced Wednesday by state Rep. Marc Berman (D), would require the California Community Colleges System...
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California campuses confront a growing challenge: homeless students [calmatters.org]
The dream was always the same, Arthur Chavez says. He was following a bumblebee through a forest, stumbling over puddles and branches. When he caught the bee, he’d find himself onstage, wearing a suit, in front of an applauding crowd. After the third time, Chavez decided the dream was a sign. He quit his job at a Fullerton gas station and enrolled in community college, on his way to a bachelor’s degree. His first semester as a transfer student at Sacramento State, he started participating in...
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California Child Welfare Policy and Progress, Winter Issue [Insight]
The California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership Report This issue of in sights provides an overview of the latest legislative developments in California, including data and perspectives on the policy and practice transformation taking place with the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). Beyond a comprehensive summary of child welfare state legislation, this issue also includes a discussion on the key provisions of the Family First Prevention Services Act. The issue concludes with...
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California Governor Signs Flurry of Health-Related Bills On Topics Ranging From Abortion Medication to School Start Times
California Governor Signs Flurry Of Health-Related Bills On Topics Ranging From Abortion Medication To School Start Times : Gov. Gavin Newsom capped the end of the legislative session with a bill signing marathon over the past few days. And some of the most notable measures from the year were health-related. Here’s a look at some of them: ― Students at California’s 34 California State University and University of California campuses will have access to medication-induced abortion — commonly...
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California Indian Nations College opens, establishes degree program in partnership with local colleges (Indian Country Today)
California Indian Nations College established through a philanthropic $3 million gift from the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians; partners include College of the Desert, University of California Riverside, and Cal State San Bernardino . “Our mission is to focus on encouraging higher education for Native Americans and non-Native students,” said Darrell Mike, Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians chairman. “Native American enrollment in higher education has dropped over the years;...
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California Legislators Take Aim at School-based Policing [ChronicleofSocialChange.org]
State laws that encourage alternatives to school-based policing in California may have done little so far to decrease the number of students funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline, but a bill introduced in January aims to change this through policy enforcement and data collection. Current state law requires California schools to collect data on police and student interactions to be submitted to the Department of Justice upon request. In reality, the law’s enforcement mechanisms are...
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California Mulls Guidelines for School Telemental Health Programs (mhealthintelligence.com)
California lawmakers are pushing a bill to develop a statewide policy for telehealth and telemedicine that will give students remote access to mental health services. AB 2315 , which is now headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, calls on the California Department of Education and Department of Health Care Services to develop connected care guidelines within two years for the state’s public schools, including charter schools. The bill passed unanimously in both the Senate and State Assembly. “For...
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Use-of-Force Incidents Against Homeless People Are Up, LAPD Reports [latimes.com]
By Leila Miller, Los Angeles Times, January 21, 2020 More than one out of three times that a Los Angeles police officer used force in recent months involved a person experiencing homelessness, according to a new LAPD report. During the third quarter of 2019, officers used force on homeless people 217 times, a 26% increase from the same period in 2018 when that number was 172. LAPD homeless coordinator Cmdr. Donald Graham pointed to the city’s growing homeless population and an uptick in...
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Using Meditation to Help Close the Achievement Gap [Well.Blogs.NYTimes.com]
Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools’ efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children’s school performance – and help close that gap. In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of...
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Using Surveys of Students' Social-Emotional Skills and School Climate for Accountability and Continuous Improvement [EdPolicyinCA.org]
This report and accompanying policy brief show that there is good reason to pursue the measurement of social-emotional learning (SEL) and school culture/climate (CC) as a way to better understand student and school performance. Using data from California's CORE districts, we show that SEL and CC measures demonstrate reliability and validity, distinguish between schools, are related to other academic and non-academic measures, and also illuminate dimensions of student achievement that go...
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Vinnie Pompei wants you to know that we're all biased, and we can work with that [edsource.org]
Vincent “Vinnie” Pompei is director of the Youth Well-Being Project of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, and the chair of Time to Thrive, an annual national conference about LGBT student inclusion. He spent more than 10 years as a middle school teacher and high school counselor in the Paramount and Val Verde unified school districts in Southern California. Pompei is also a past president of the California Association of School Counselors. On Oct. 5 at the...
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Webinar: Data on Youth in Schools
Learn about the largest statewide surveys of school climate, risk behaviors, and protective factors in the nation and how to access the data. Kidsdata.org recently released a comprehensive suite of data on youth in schools in more than a dozen topics, from bullying and cyberbullying to school climate, school safety and student support. These data come from the 2013-2015 California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) and California School Staff Survey (CSSS). Webinar: Thursday, November 8 at 10 am PST...
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Webinar: Regulation Before Education- Strategies For a Successful Return
"The schools that prioritize staff and student well-being will thrive!" SIGN UP HERE The COVID pandemic is a rapidly evolving collective trauma that is reshaping and challenging the structure and fabric of education. Prioritizing how we identify and support both student and staff social-emotional needs will be critical from day one. This 2-part webinar is geared towards leaders and educators who are already committed to whole-child work and already exploring how to plan and navigate towards...
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Why Understanding A Student's Preschool Life May Be Key To Raising LAUSD Graduation Rates [laist.com]
By Mariana Dale, LAist, December 12, 2019 Almost 31,000 children attend some kind of early childhood program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but that system isn't well connected to the district's elementary and high schools. That means it's hard for teachers to understand a student's background and where they need help when they enter K-12 schools. Now the district has a strategic plan to change that. LAUSD's Birth to Eight Roadmap recommends new teaching methods, data collection...
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Why Yolo County is signing hundreds of college students up for food stamps [ABC 10]
DAVIS, Calif. — More than 1,000 college students have applied for food stamps in the past year and a half at UC Davis, courtesy of focused outreach efforts from both the university and Yolo County. As applications for food stamps grew by hundreds, the number of students actively seeking help grew by thousands. “The amount of students that they [UC Davis] are seeing that are homeless, that are sleeping in their cars, that are using the showers in the locker room, that are food insecure, and...
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Windfall for California K-12 schools, more spending from early to higher ed in Newsom's first budget [edsource.org]
School districts laboring under higher mandated expenses would receive a surprise windfall — pension-cost relief — in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first proposed state budget for 2019-20, which will also provide big spending increases for early and higher education. Using surplus money from the state’s General Fund, Newsom would wipe out $3 billion of districts’ rising obligations to CalSTRS, the pension fund for teachers and administrators, including $350 million each of the next two fiscal years.
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Women Trying to Improve Their Lives Find a Deep Resource in WELL, A Female-Led Nonprofit [modbee.com]
By Deke Farrow, The Modesto Bee, October 4, 2019 Alana Scott likes to share a story about Tanya King. King, 47 and a student at Modesto Junior College, was interviewing for a scholarship to take a five-week Living WELL program, said Scott, a founder of the nonprofit organization WELL, or Women’s Education and Leadership League. King saw another candidate, Veronica Nunez, arriving and greeted her. Scott asked King how she knew Nunez, and learned that they’re MJC classmates and that King had...
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Youth court banishes blame; leads with ACEs science
YMCA Marin County Youth Court in San Rafael, California In her opening statement, 17-year-old youth advocate Eva advises jurors how to proceed and summarizes her “client’s” good qualities. “As you will see, Julian is genuine, well-spoken and friendly. I recommend asking him about his friends and family, his future plans and his activities outside of school.” (First names only of all minors are used to protect their privacy.) Welcome to the YMCA Marin County (CA) Youth Court, one of 1,400...
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Youth in Schools Data Available on Kidsdata
Kidsdata announces a comprehensive suite of data, Youth in Schools, including new and updated indicators across more than a dozen topics from the viewpoint of California’s students and school staff. These data are available for state, county, and school district levels, and student-reported data are easily customizable by grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, parent education level and level of school connectedness. Youth in Schools data come from the 2013-2015 California...
Ask the Community
Anyone using MHSA or other funds in innovative ways to address ACEs or trauma?
Question: Please share examples of innovative uses of existing funding to address ACEs and trauma. For example, Mental Health Services Act has a funding category called "Innovative Projects" which might be a way to fund ACEs and trauma related efforts. Are you aware of any CA communities that have found ways to utilize MHSA or other funds in unexpected ways - that have the potential of addressing trauma and ACEs? See below and attached for more background re MHSA. Background: The CA...
Ask the Community
CA AB 989: Bill to combat Institutionalized Child Abuse in Public Education
AB 989 was announced today. As a survivor and now activist- this bill is a "boots on the ground" oversight program to act as first responders, case managers and provide procedural guidance to victims and their families of Educator Sexual Misconduct and prevent child endangerment by the common practice of cover-up. We will be going to committee in Sacramento within the next month but if anyone is interested in further information or curious about supporting the legisation- please contact me...