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By John Fensterwald, Photo: Green Team/Riverside STEM High School, EdSource, February 8, 2022 F resno Unified is among the school districts encouraging students to become civically engaged and in the process earn a seal affixed to their high school diploma that recognizes their involvement. The State Seal of Civic Engagement recognizes not only that students understand the democratic process but also apply their knowledge to address issues or problems they care deeply about in school or the...

By Rebecca Catterson, Lucy Rabinowitz, and Emily Alvarez, Photo: Unsplash, California Health Care Foundation, January 27, 2022 California is home to a diverse population varying by income, age, region, and racial and ethnic background. Annually since 2019, the California Health Care Foundation has conducted a survey of residents’ views on a variety of health care topics, some of which are tracked over time to detect meaningful differences in public opinion. The California Health Care...

By Aditi Tandon, The Tribune, February 3, 2022 India-born Devika Bhushan was on Thursday appointed California’s top doctor after incumbent surgeon general Nadine Burke Harris resigned on Wednesday, following three years in the role. Bhushan, the newly-appointed California surgeon general, is Agra born. She’s the daughter of Indu Bhushan, who set up and steered India’s flagship Ayushman Bharat Mission for annual cashless hospitalisation cover of Rs 5 lakh for over 10 crore vulnerable...

By Fontana News Room, Photo: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times, Fontana News Room, February 7, 2022 When I conjure the image of a typical public school — the bright fluorescent lighting, the hard, unyielding plastic desk chairs and the shrill bells that announce the beginning and end of class — the word “calming” doesn’t exactly come to mind. Combine that with the frenetic energy that comes with 15 to 30 students crammed into a relatively small room all day, and you’ve got a recipe for...

By Joel Knudson and Jennifer O'Day, Photo: Liv Ames/EdSource, EdSource, February 7, 2022 A s 2022 begins, educators, students, families and communities continue to navigate a state of prolonged and volatile crisis. The persistent spread of Covid-19 has compounded the challenge of ensuring safe and healthy learning environments. Meanwhile, too many students continue to suffer from the ongoing effects of the pandemic — academically, socially, emotionally and mentally. Community schools may...

A Message from UCAAN's Leadership Dear ACEs Aware family, California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris has announced that she will step down from her position on February 11. It is hard to overstate her influence in catalyzing the statewide movement to identify, address, and overcome the health impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress on California's families. In just two years, she worked with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to launch...

Has the pandemic stressed you out? Want to learn the self-soothing skills of Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience directly from the author, Dr. Carolyn Curtis? Good news! The Dibble Institute has received generous funding for scholarships to the online, full 12-lesson series, Mind Matters Now . The course helps teachers, social workers, medical professionals, and others manage their stress by building resilience skills and practices for mental well-being. (CEUs are...

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, shown at her home in San Francisco, became the state’s first surgeon general in 2019. (Paul Kuroda / For The Times) By Hayley Smith | Staff writer California’s top physician is stepping down. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, who became the state’s first surgeon general in 2019, announced her resignation Tuesday, her office confirmed. Dr. Devika Bhushan, chief health officer, will serve as acting surgeon general. Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked Burke Harris for “the impactful...

By Jakob Rodgers, Photo: Robert So/Pexels, The Mercury News, January 31, 2022 California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who three years ago placed a moratorium on executions, is moving to dismantle the United States’ largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons within two years. The goal is to turn the section at San Quentin State Prison into a “positive, healing environment.” Newsom said Monday it’s an outgrowth of his opposition to what he believes is a deeply flawed system, one...

By John Fensterwald, Photo: Allison Shelley/Eduimages, EdSource, January 31, 2022 I n coming weeks, California will embark on a massive undertaking to convert several thousand schools in low-income neighborhoods into centers of community life and providers of vital services for families as well as students. Known as community schools, they will be established over the next seven years. New York and Maryland are among states that are investing in community schools, but California’s $3 billion...

ACEs Aware in Action January 2022 Looking Back: 2021 Year in Review As we reflect on 2021, we would like to thank you for joining the movement to make our State of CAre ACEs Aware. From raising awareness for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress to supporting practice change and growing trauma-informed networks of care, 2021 was a productive year for the ACEs Aware initiative. We have invested a total of $45 million in grant funds to communities across the state, and Medi-Cal...

By Eliza Torralba, Photo: Unsplash, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, January 31, 2022 In 2020, more than 2.5 million California children, adolescents, and adults (ages 0–64) still have no health insurance coverage, as detailed in a new study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) , The State of Health Insurance in California: Findings From the 2019 and 2020 California Health Interview Surveys . With California’s revived attempts to achieve universal healthcare coverage...