May 2020

By Louis Freedberg, EdSource, May 27, 2020 While educators across the state are struggling over how and when to bring students safely back to school in the fall, teachers in at least one California classroom have already figured it out. At San Jose Middle School, located in Novato in Marin County, Cindy Evans’ class for special education students has been in session for ten days. Educators interviewed by EdSource say they know of no other similar effort in the state. The students in the...

By Renee Gross, JD Health Policy Consultant, Kaiser Permanente Over the past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused everyone to grapple with uncertainty and manage new stressors at home, at work, and in our communities. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll indicated that 45% of Americans report that the current crisis is harming their mental health. We are facing unprecedented disruption in our daily lives and navigating a world of school and business closures, job losses, social...

By Michelle Cardell, Aaron S. Kelly, and Lindsay A. Thompson, JAMA Pediatrics, May 26, 2020 Parents, empower your adolescents so they can make choices that promote their healthiest self. Teens, getting older means making decisions about what matters to you most. Making healthy choices is a great place to start. Taking care of your physical, emotional, and mental health is what makes it possible for you to do all the things you want to do. Fuel Up You are in charge of what you eat and drink.

By JoNel Aleccia, California Healthline, May 26, 2020 Back home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Richard and Denise Victor would get to see their four grandchildren almost every day. One set of kids lives around the block; the others are half an hour away, all close enough for frequent visits and sleepovers. “With the younger ones, we have a routine of stories when they spend the night,” Richard Victor said. But when the coronavirus hit, the couple were at their vacation home in Florida and,...

The California Department of Social Services is supporting Parents Anonymous in the launch of the new California Parent and Youth Helpline, which provides support and resource referrals to parent and youth during the current COVID-19 pandemic. We are requesting your assistance in promoting the helpline by sharing the below information with your contacts and placing the logo on relevant websites: The California Parent and Youth Helpline provides support and resource referrals to parent and...

Please remember and RSVP and tune into this webinar: Lessons from the Past: Yellow Peril in COVID-19 Times Carolee https://www.facebook.com/events/654842191980055/

From Big Ideas, University of California at Davis, May 2020 Dr. Garen Wintemute is a leading expert on gun violence as well as a practicing emergency medicine physician and the director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program. He and his colleagues will discuss the latest findings in developing evidence-based, non-partisan solutions to violence that will enable us to build safer communities. Date of event: May 27, 2020 12:00 PM [ Please click here to register .]

Wednesday, May 27, 2020 Noon – 1 p.m. Register for the webinar This webinar will focus on building understanding and identifying primary care and telehealth strategies and tools to address the secondary health effects of the COVID-19 emergency. Speakers: Devika Bhushan, MD, FAAP – Pediatrician and Chief Health Officer, Office of the California Surgeon General Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP – Pediatrician; Nominee, AAP President-elect; Professor of Pediatrics, Interim Division Chief-General...

By Rusty Simmons, San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 2020 Nearly 124,000 people have signed up for medical insurance through Covered California since March 20 as the state grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and startling unemployment numbers. According to the state health care marketplace, 123,810 people have sought insurance during Covered California’s special open-enrollment period. The exchange is generally open from Oct. 15 to Jan. 31, but it extended the period amid the crisis. “When...

From ACEs Aware, May 21, 2020 Dear Colleagues, Thank you for your ongoing interest in our ACEs Aware grants process. We have completed the grant application review and scoring process and have selected a group of finalists that will be considered in the final stage of the grant award process. Being a finalist is not a guarantee of funding. The final funding determination, in terms of how many organizations will receive funding and how much, will be determined after the state budget is...

May Revise Budget Update Below are some of the key issues impacting children’s wellbeing in the 2020-21 May Revision budget proposal released on May 14. The overall Children Now statement on the May Revise can be found here , and a letter from over 760 organizations with Pro-Kid budget asks sent before the May Revise can be found here . Prop 56 funding would be moved away from prioritizing children. There are a number of changes that pull back on the Governor’s January proposals that would...

From Children Now, May 2020 The Governor’s May Revise budget proposes to eliminate the Family Urgent Response System (FURS), enacted in 2019 to provide 24/7 trauma-informed support to current and former foster youth and their caregivers through a statewide hotline and county mobile response systems. Eliminating FURS will exacerbate the profound trauma that abused and neglected children have already experienced and cause them long-term harm. [ Please click here to read more .] or see attached.