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The 2018 legislative session officially wrapped up on September 30th with Governor Brown taking action on all pieces of legislation that made it to his desk. This year, the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) endorsed three bills that were aligned with 4CA's objectives. We're happy to share that SB 439 (Mitchell & Lara) is officially law! This means that children 11 years old and younger are excluded from prosecution in juvenile court, except when the child is...

There is a severe human and fiscal cost of homelessness. In response, there's a new infusion of funding in California - approximately $750 million in three new programs - to help cities and counties address the needs of more than 130,000 men, women, and children who do not have a permanent and safe place to call home. These new programs include Homeless Emergency Aid Program ($500 million, deadline Dec. 31, 2018), No Place Like Home ($190 million), and the California Emergency Solutions and...

Gov. Jerry Brown has rejected a bill that would have given survivors of childhood sexual assault in California more time to file suits against those who could have stopped their abuse. The bill, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), would have allowed victims to file abuse claims until they are 40 years old. It also would have permitted those who have repressed memories of abuse to sue within five years of unearthing the cause of their trauma. On Monday, victims...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday signed a pair of measures that limits when and how young people can be prosecuted for criminal charges. It continues Brown’s efforts, in his final term, to undo many of the tough sentencing policies he supported during his first stint as governor, which contributed to an unconstitutionally overcrowded prison system in California. Senate Bill 439 establishes 12 years as the minimum age for prosecution in juvenile court , unless a minor younger than 12 has committed...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday signed a bill into law that makes California the first state to require corporate boards of directors to include women, saying that despite potentially “fatal” legal problems in the measure, it is time to force action. “Given all the special privileges that corporations have enjoyed for so long, it’s high time corporate boards include the people who constitute more than half the ‘persons’ in America,” Brown wrote in a signing message. The new law requires publicly...

Governor Agrees: Time for CA to get strategic about early intervention in mental illness Governor Jerry Brown today signed into law Senate Bill 1004, marking a watershed moment for the delivery of mental health care in California. The bill will ensure far more families across the state have access to high-quality mental health services that aim to intervene before a brain illness becomes disabling. By requiring California to be more strategic in its approach to prevention and early...

You can add Robert Rodriguez to a growing list of Angelenos living right on the brink of homelessness. Rodriguez shares his story, talking softly, as he leans on his walker outside his old apartment. He was evicted the day before. "Everything is gone," he says. "It's all in storage." Rodriguez, 82, used to be a truck driver. He's on a fixed income and has had health problems including a heart attack. Last February, when his landlord notified he and his wife that their rent was going up by 15...

Gov. Jerry Brown must decide by October 1 whether to approve a bill that will expand up through grade 8 the current law that eliminated suspensions in grades K-3 for disruption or defiance of school authorities. In 2014, his approval of the law reflected a combination of his attention to research, as well as listening to superintendents, teachers, civil rights advocates and others. A new report that I co-authored shows that suspensions for disruption or defiance have nearly been eliminated...

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GOBiz) recently announced a series of workshops on the new California Community Reinvestment Grants program. The goal of this new program is to provide grants to community based non-profit organizations and local health departments in order to serve communities disproportionately affected by past drug policies. The structure of the program and input and feedback from attendees will be discussed in order to further develop the...

ACEs Conference Registration closes in 1 week on Friday 9/28! Note: There is a very limited cap on on-site registrations, so registering online by September 28 is the only way to guarantee your admission.

California has made strides to reduce student suspensions for minor classroom disruptions, but a new study concludes the state still has not gone far enough — and in some districts, pernicious disparities remain. Statewide, school districts in 2017 issued some 381,845 suspensions that resulted in an estimated 763,690 missed days of instruction, according to a new report by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA. The number of days lost for minor infractions categorized as “defiance and...

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.