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The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors split Tuesday on a decision to relinquish a $38.9 million state grant for a transition complex that was recently cut from plans for a North County jail. The 3-2 decision effectively kills a last-minute proposal from Sheriff Bill Brown, who sought reconsideration of the grant to alternatively fund the 228-bed treatment facility, which would have been staffed by the county’s Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Services department. The board...

Jaimare Limbrick, 14, talks with sister Eriqua Thompson, 7, in Modesto _________________________________ Modesto City Schools has slashed its numbers of suspensions and expulsions, adding proactive programs and in-school options. But African Americans, especially boys, are still far more likely to be kicked off campus than people of other ethnicities. “Back in (2011-12) we stuck out like a sore thumb because of the expulsions. Now the numbers are way down, so something’s...

While meditation has expanded  in recent years from a zen-seeker’s path to higher consciousness to a best practice for hard-charging CEOs, it’s now gaining a foothold at a school in Southern California serving students with serious emotional and behavioral issues. Administrators at the Five Acres School in Altadena, Calif., are testing whether meditation and mindfulness can help students succeed in the classroom. A new mindfulness program implemented there in two semesters...

Last New Year’s Day,  when 13-year-old  Lee Weathersby III  was shot and died in Oakland, Calif., nearly 200 of his middle school peers and teachers received therapy. In the Oakland Unified School District, Sandra Simmons’ job is to help coordinate that therapy on school campuses. As a Behavioral Health Program Manager for the district, Simmons oversees crisis response across the district. She has organized behavioral health training and counseling for students,...

On March 16 & 17 in Los Angeles, Echo Parenting & Education is convening the Great and the Good of trauma-informed schools for a national forum (international, actually, thanks to our Canadians registrants). This forum is a chance to deepen your knowledge about childhood trauma, participate in resiliency-building somatic (sensory) activities, and to learn about best and promising practices from pioneers around the nation who are working to create trauma-informed schools. And it...

The 30th annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment kicks off next week at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina.  This annual event brings an estimated 1,800 - 2,000 multidisciplinary professionals in the child abuse field from around the world each year.  This year, the Academy on Violence and Abuse (AVA) is hosting one of the preconference sessions on Sunday, January 24th from 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM.  This session, titled: Building Trauma...

By Leah Bartos Pediatric patients giving their health histories at the Center for Youth Wellness, a health clinic in the impoverished Bayview Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, are asked for more than the usual details about allergies and current prescriptions. Doctors there need a different kind of medical history: did their parents use drugs or have a mental illness? Were any family member in jail or prison? Have their parents divorced or separated? Have they suffered from...

Do you want your ham and eggs, California? It is one of the oldest and most enduring ideas in our state: Government should provide everyone with a minimum amount of money on a regular basis. It goes back to the 1930s, when Californians narrowly rejected the so-called “Ham and Eggs” proposals to give Californians a $30 check every Thursday. Now, this notion is back, a subject of books and op-eds and speeches, especially in the Bay Area, and with some bipartisan political momentum.

The Shasta County Department of Public Health is looking at a new way to address healthiness, and it starts by looking back at childhood experiences. Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs, are childhood experiences that are unhappy, unhealthy and hurtful before age 18. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looking at ACEs suggests that these "experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in...

Tiny houses are getting a big break from the city of Fresno. Now, other communities across the country are interested. The pint-sized houses on wheels – complete with kitchen, living room and loft – are now considered backyard cottages thanks to changes in the city’s zoning and development code. That means tiny homes can be used as independent living quarters on the same lot as a single-family house granted it meets some requirements. Previously, the mobile units could only...

By implementing a “rapid rehousing” policy, hundreds of communities around the U.S. are moving from blaming, shaming and punishing the homeless, to understanding, nurturing and providing homeless people a safe place to recover and heal. In California, Orange County is changing its policy from putting people in temporary shelters to providing them permanent subsidized housing. So is Los Angeles — where 25,000 people are homeless. Instead of trying to force people who are...

A pilot program employed since September has prompted 80 percent of drug offenders to seek treatment. Before the pilot program, drug abusers had no incentive to get treatment, said Steve Wright, assistant district attorney. Supervisors voted 5-0 to pass the funding plan for a new drug court that emphasizes treatment instead of confinement. The program will save the county money over the long run: Confinement is expensive, and successful treatment will prevent crime, resulting in savings in...