Tagged With "child abuse reports"
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems [prnewswire.com]
LOS ANGELES , Oct. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . Building on research and the experience of experts from Los Angeles , the report defines trauma as the effects of a...
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems (prnewswire.com)
Center for Collective Wisdom Releases Extensive Report Outlining Research and Recommendations First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . "Trauma is a serious health concern affecting many children and...
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Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) Blogging Tips and Talking about Trauma
Berkeley Media Studies Group facilitated a southern and northern California Strategic Communications Workshop in October 2015. Attached, please find their powerpoint, created by co-facilitators Julieta Kusnir and Pamela Mejia, titled "Talking about Trauma: Tips & Tools for Communicating Effectively" and "Blogging Tips for Media Advocates" articulating tips on content, headlines, length and tone of blogs.
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Bikers Against Child Abuse
In times like these where accessible mental health resources are dwindling or filled to capacity, I am compelled to seek outside the box as a mental health professional. And what I am finding astonishes me. I met with the LA Chapter of B.A.C.A., Bikers Against Child Abuse and what they do, free of charge, for children who have been physically or sexually abused needs to be known. Any child who has a current case in the system (which is a cold and frightening process) is eligible for their...
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California is failing our kids [SactoBee.com]
California’s economy is the seventh-largest in the world, and home to global industries that have revolutionized our way of life. Yet when it comes to caring for our children, we are failing to provide the essential services they need to thrive and succeed. The facts are disturbing and unacceptable. California ranks 49th among the states for standard of living for kids; roughly half of children are in families in or near poverty; nearly three-fourths of our youngest kids don’t receive health...
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California issues update on state residents' ACE scores from 2011 & 2013 surveys
The latest adverse childhood experiences survey from the California Department of Public Health shows that 42% of the population has an ACE score of 3 or higher; 16% have an ACE score of 4 or higher. Those with an ACE score of 4 or higher are: 3x more likely to be current smokers 4x more likely to have a depressive disorder 2x more likely to have asthma 2x more likely to be obese 4x more likely to have COPD 3x more likely to have a stroke Here are a few other highlights from the six-page...
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Child abuse, neglect data released [Children's Bureau]
Children's Bureau - Office of the Administration for Children and Families - January 25, 2016 This report presents national data about child abuse and neglect known to child protective services agencies in the United States during federal fiscal year 2014. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/child-maltreatment-2014
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Climate Resiliency & Watershed Protection Bill Passes Out of Committee (smdp.com)
AB 2528, a measure that incorporates four state watersheds into the triennial California’s Climate Adaptation Strategy report, has passed out Assembly Natural Resources on a 7-3 vote. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), will help the state create more climate resilient habitats and protect the state’s largest estuaries and most pristine river systems. AB 2528 identifies climate resilient habitat areas that offer the best opportunity to remain ecologically...
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Closing the Empathy Gap in Education
In the Hechinger Report, Amanda Wahlstedt wrote about the empathy gap she experienced as a poor student with a disconnected privileged teacher. She wrote: As a young girl in rural southeastern Kentucky, I remember distinctly hearing my teacher talk about “first of the month-ers,” or people who were out and in the grocery stores at the first of the month, typically with shopping “buggies” overloaded with preserved food. When I looked around the classroom I noticed many of my friends either...
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Consumer Corner: Putting More Eyes on Human Trafficking in Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County is one of the top three points of entry into the U.S. for victims of slavery and trafficking. The diverse communities here make it easier to hide and move victims from place to place, and that in turn makes it difficult for law enforcement to locate and help them. New efforts in Los Angeles and Santa Monica focus on the place to place aspect of trafficking; to find and protect trafficking victims by identifying the places and situations where trafficking occurs or crosses.
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Crisis Worsens for Homeless Women, Report Finds [ladowntownnews.com]
By Nicholas Slayton, Los Angeles Downtown News, February 5, 2020 Homelessness among women has increased in the last year, with 10,845 women experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, and more women experiencing homelessness for the first time, according to a new report from the Downtown Women’s Center. The Downtown Women’s Center, in partnership with the University of Southern California, unveiled the 2019 Los Angeles City Women’s Needs Assessment on Thursday, Jan. 30 at its...
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CYW releases "Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California's Response to ACEs"
The Center for Youth Wellness released a new report “Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California’s Response to ACEs”. This report is a follow up to last November’s Children Can Thrive Summit. ...
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Early education is affordable for more families under new state budget: Guest commentary (dailybreeze.com)
Here in Los Angeles County, the extreme shortage of early learning opportunities for children, prenatal to age 5, is an urgent issue. According to the L.A. County Child Care Planning Committee's most recent State of Early Care and Education in Los Angeles County report , 59 percent of preschoolers lack access to state-subsidized early learning opportunities; and 87 percent of working parents with infants and toddlers lack access to a licensed child-care center seat of any kind. The $183...
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An Upstream Approach: Using Data-Driven Home Visiting to Prevent Child Abuse (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
(Image Credit: pixgood.com) Today, Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors will vote on a motion to move 103 public health nurses from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Department of Public Health. While largely administrative, the development sets the nation’s largest child welfare system up for a much broader discussion about how public health strategies can help break the intergenerational cycles of abuse that result in preventable child maltreatment. If Los...
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Foster kids need face time with parents, but in LA County that's not easy (scpr.org)
According to a recent Los Angeles County report, nearly 10,000 children in the county's foster care system are receiving "reunification services" designed to help repair their families and return them to their parents — and visitation is a core, legally required component. "It's one of the most essential services we can provide," said Diane Iglesias, senior deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Visits help keep children connected with their...
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How Social Workers Improve Relationships Between Police and Communities
by MSW@USC Staff In 1955 , the Los Angeles Police Department adopted the motto “To Protect and Serve,” and over the last seven decades, many other American law enforcement departments followed suit. But in the Black Lives Matter era, those words may not resonate with some members of the communities police are tasked with protecting and serving. Community members may feel law enforcement officials exercise more authority than necessary. How can both sides work to create a more positive...
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Immigrants fueled LA economy to tune of $232.9 billion in 2014 (dailynews.com)
A new report finds that immigrants in Los Angeles County contributed $232.9 billion to the region’s economy, nearly 35.7 percent of the area’s economic output. The report, “New Americans in Los Angeles,” breaks down immigrant contributions to the city of L.A. and to the county, providing a “snapshot” on a range of demographic factors, from education and labor participation levels. Backed by the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, New American Economy – a bipartisan...
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In L.A., Nine in Ten Incarcerated Youth Have a Documented Mental Health Issue [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, June 12, 2019. After a new report found that more than 90 percent of youth in the county’s juvenile halls had an open mental health case, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors pledged to improve mental health care to justice-involved youth in county. That includes both more services for youth detained in the county’s juvenile detention facilities and more options to divert youth away from incarceration and into less restrictive...
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L.A. County to consider overhaul of defense system for juveniles accused of crimes [Los Angeles Times]
Los Angeles County elected officials are preparing to consider an overhaul of the county's system for defending minors accused of crimes, following the release of a report that found attorneys contracted by the county to represent juveniles get fewer resources and less oversight than those in other counties. Youths whose families can't afford a lawyer and who can't be represented by the public defender's office because of a conflict of interest are represented by county-contracted private...
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L.A. County to Implement State Plan to Prevent Unintended Pregnancies Among Youth (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
The state plan, “ California’s Plan for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancies for Youth and Non-Minor Dependents ,” aims to address the fact that by age 21 over 1 in 3 girls in foster care will have given birth, according to a report by the Children’s Data Network. Representatives from all three departments, the child welfare advocacy community and at least one former foster youth will participate in developing the strategy. “What’s important here is to make sure we’re catering to the...
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L.A. Rolls Out Plan To Better Support ‘Disconnected’ Youth (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan on Tuesday that seeks to reduce the number of “disconnected” youth in the county, especially foster youth and formerly incarcerated young people. The goal of the regional effort is to improve the educational, workforce, housing and well-being outcomes of youth ages 16 to 24. According to a recent report , about one in every six young people in Los Angeles County is not enrolled in school and are not working. That’s about 207,440...
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LA County funding boost would let more kids enjoy local parks: Guest commentary (dailybreeze.com)
(Image: A 2013 file photo shows Little League players from Lennox running sprints during practice at Jim Thorpe park in Hawthorne.) When I was growing up in Hawthorne, there was a spot along the 105 Freeway we called “the dirt field.” The freeway cut off access to the few parks we had in our neighborhood, so my friends and I just hung out in the dirt field — nothing more than a tiny dirt vacant lot. It was our ballfield, our playground and our place to just be kids. I cherish the memories of...
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LA county leaders green-light construction of new mental health center in Valley (dailynews.com)
A $14.5 million project that will expand mental health services in the San Fernando Valley was approved unanimously Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The proposed new building will include outpatient mental health services, mostly for children, a waiting area, reception area, business offices, counseling/therapy rooms, and group therapy rooms, among other spaces. " The San Fernando Mental Health Center project will enhance the County's ability to provide mental health...
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LA County’s homeless need more than housing to stay off the streets, report says (dailynews.com)
Housing alone will not solve Los Angeles County’s homelessness problem, and a more strategic effort at early intervention is needed to prevent people from becoming homeless or staying homeless, according to an analysis done by the Economic Roundtable. The Roundtable released a report that looks at 26 sets of data to better understand the characteristics of the homeless population and their needs, with the goal of finding the best way to help people out of homelessness and prevent them from...
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LA County’s sexual harassment complaint system can be improved, leaders say (dailynews.com)
The report presented to the Board of Supervisors by staff with the County Equity Oversight Panel outlined in detail how employees from all departments, such as deputies and doctors, nurses and social workers, can file complaints of harassment, bullying, or retaliation related to everything from age, ancestry, religion and gender identity, to marital status and disability, for example. Such complaints can be made through e-mail, a hotline, or in person. With a $30 billion budget, Los Angeles...
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Working at the intersection of violence and land use (preventioninstitute.org)
This past September, the Healthy, Equitable, Active Land Use (HEALU) Network convened a summit in Los Angeles to explore the nexus of land use and community safety, drawing nearly 100 community members, policymakers, and representatives of community-based organizations. Our new report shares key learnings from this summit and invites people working in land use, transportation, food policy, education, housing, and other areas to consider the ways their own work can support safe communities.
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2019 Los Angeles Women's Needs Assessment [downtownwomenscenter.org]
By Downtown Women's Center, February 2020 A report on women experiencing homelessness The 2019 Los Angeles Women’s Needs Assessment is a community-based research project developed in partnership with unsheltered and sheltered women in the City of Los Angeles. Expanding on the legacy of six past projects documenting the demographics, needs, and conditions of homeless and low-income women in downtown Los Angeles, this project includes women from a broader geographic swath of the city. [ Please...
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San Francisco Trauma Informed Systems Initiative 2014 Year In Review
The Department made the commitment to train all of its 9,000 staff to become trauma-informed. From the report: The Trauma Informed Systems Initiative Workgroup is led by Dr. Ken Epstein and currently staffed by a full time Coordinator, a team of 4...
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School meals: a reflection of growing poverty in LA (calmatters.org)
The numbers of Los Angeles children who need the meals have been rising sharply in recent years. In 2015-2016, 72.4% or 405,338 LAUSD students qualified for the free or reduced price meals, according to a 2017 Food Research Action Center report. “We have the highest participation of students who are served breakfast in the classroom,” said Monica Garcia, a member of the LAUSD School Board. “Also, most of our schools (75%) are in the Community Eligibility Program, where all students get all...
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Sesame Street's Traumatic Experiences Website / First 5 CA Care, Cope Connect Resource
Thanks to Alejandra Labrado from First 5 Sacramento for providing the links to these resources! Sesame Street's Traumatic Experiences: https://sesamestreetincommunities.org/topics/traumatic-experiences/ When a child endures a traumatic experience, the whole family feels the impact. But adults hold the power to help lessen its effects. Several factors can change the course of kids’ lives: feeling seen and heard by a caring adult, being patiently taught coping strategies and...
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Should Los Angeles County Predict Which Children Will Become Criminals? (psmag.com)
Photo: thomashawk/Flickr One major difference separates the troubling Minority Report policing programs from what happened in L.A. County's Child Welfare system. One of the primary goals of Los Angeles County’s child welfare system is keeping kids out of lock-up. But in this pursuit, the county took a surprising step: It used a predictive analytics tool as part of a program to identify which specific kids might end up behind bars. The process wasn’t incredibly complicated: It...
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States Produce a Bumper Crop of ACEs bills in 2017—nearly 40 bills in 18 states
A scan done in March by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) through StateNet of bills introduced in 2017 that specifically include adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the text produced a surprising volume of bills (close of 40) in a large number of states (18). A scan done a year ago produced less than a handful. NCSL is a bipartisan organization that serves both state legislators and their staffs. The shear volume of bills in so many states represents a promising...
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Study: Community Trauma from Gun Violence Results in Negative Health and Behavioral Outcomes (Violence Policy Center)
Research on trauma is frequently featured in mainstream news outlets, pointing to its connection to a range of behavioral and health outcomes. While trauma can have multiple interpretations, for the purposes of this report, it is the result of experiencing or witnessing chronic and sustained violence, or specific events that can have lasting effects on individuals. Researchers have identified 13 distinct types of trauma, including community violence. Community violence is an umbrella term...
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Suicides have increased by more than 30% since 1999 in half the states, CDC says (latimes.com)
More than a decade of steadily rising rates have made suicide the nation’s 10th leading cause of death and one of only three causes of death — including Alzheimer’s disease and drug overdoses — that are increasing in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . In a report that examines trends in suicide at the state level from 1999 to 2016, the CDC reports that suicide rates have increased in nearly all states. In half of the states, the agency found the...
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The Effects of Educational Disengagement
Introduction The need for a caring school culture that promotes a sense of connectedness and belonging is essential and must begin the day a child begins their educational experience. Yet, for those of us who work in alternative education environment, we often hear the all too common story of a school experience that didn't meet the students needs. Meeting the needs of a student is a broad connotation that can vary considerably depending on the school setting and the student describing the...
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Trauma and Resiliency Informed Systems Change in Los Angeles County
First 5 LA and its partners are calling for a commitment within organizations and systems to help individuals, families and communities heal from trauma, strengthen their resiliency, and become trauma and resiliency informed. This work began in 2016 with a kick-off event to hear about promising practices underway in other counties and progressed to a workgroup of foundations, community-based organizations and Los Angeles County Departments that convened for nearly a year to provide...
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Trauma Informed Schools—An Essential for Student & Staff Success, Part 3: The Holistic Approach
In the first two parts of this series ( part one , part two ), we talk about the implications of trauma and student behavior and how to create a trauma informed school. The success of creating a trauma informed school weighs heavily on the school and community embracing the holistic approach. At Los Angeles Education Partnership, we achieve this through our Community School model. As former teachers, we are aware that the more we pile on our teachers, the less effective the approach becomes.
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Two Years After End Of Indefinite Solitary In CA, CDCR Violating Terms Of Settlement, And Inmates Experiencing Lasting Psychological Effects, Says Center For Constitutional Rights (witnessla.com)
In 2015, California settled Ashker v. Governor , a historic class-action lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of a group of Pelican Bay State prison inmates who had each spent at least a decade in isolation. The settlement resulted in an end to the use of indefinite solitary confinement in CA prisons. On Monday, CCR filed a motion accusing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of violating the rights of inmates freed from indefinite...
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UCLA Study Reveals Educational and Social Challenges Affecting Black Youth in Los Angeles County[Los Angeles Sentinel]
By Alysha Conner, Contributing Writer, Los Angeles Sentinel Published October 31, 2019 African-American students in Los Angeles County are currently facing a dual-threat of inadequate educational opportunities and support. It has been proven that social and environmental factors have also placed their educational and social development at significant risk. A recent study published by UCLA graduates exhibits Black students in LA County disproportionately attending schools that the state...
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Why Do LA’s Foster Care Facilities Keep Calling The Cops On Traumatized Kids? (witnessla.com)
On March 21, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed an important motion that instructed the Director of the Office of Child Protection, Michael Nash, former presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s Juvenile Court, to find out why so many of LA County’s foster children were crossing into the county’s delinquency system, what could be done to prevent that crossing, and how these so-called crossover kids could be helped if and when and if they found themselves in the clutches of both...
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LA County Supes Seek Better Care And Outcomes For Pregnant And Post-Partum Incarcerated Women And Girls And Their Babies (witnessla.com)
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to identify ways to better support pregnant women and girls in the county’s jails and juvenile lockups. The motion, authored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directs the Department of Health Services and the sheriff’s department, in coordination with other relevant county departments to report back to the board in 90 days with data on the number of pregnant women and girls in sheriff’s department or probation custody,...
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LA County Supes Vote To Keep Pregnant Teens Out Of Lockup
Written by Taylor Walker In February 2018, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to look at ways to better support pregnant women and girls in the county’s jails and juvenile lockups. Acknowledging that incarcerated pregnant girls and women often live in poor conditions before giving birth and being separated from their babies, the February motion , authored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directed the Department of Health Services to report back to the board in 90 days with...
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LA County Will Add 500 Badly Needed Mental Health Treatment Beds (laist.com)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to add 500 mental health treatment beds over the next two years, as part of a larger effort to increase services for Angelenos who need psychiatric help. The supervisors approved recommendations in a report from the County Department of Mental Health, which said there's a serious shortage of psychiatric treatment beds. Emergency rooms are overloaded and about one-quarter of the county's adult homeless people have a serious mental...
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LA County women are getting healthier, study finds, but poverty and homelessness rise [DailyNews.com]
More of Los Angeles County’s women now have medical insurance, are employed, don’t smoke and are less likely to die of breast cancer or heart disease, according to a report released Wednesday. But an increased number also live in poverty, are homeless and have difficulty accessing health care. The concluding message behind the data compiled in a triennial report by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is that while many gains have been made for women in the last several years,...
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LA Unified cites rising suicidal behavior and devises tools to address it [EdSource.org]
More than 5,000 incidents of suicidal behavior were reported in Los Angeles Unified in the last school year, an exponential jump from the 255 reported in 2010-2011 when the district, California’s largest, began tracking such incidents. The cases were cited in the district’s latest Incident System Tracking Accountability Report , or iStar, an annual review of troubling incidents that occurred in district schools during the academic year. The list includes such things as injuries, accidents,...
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LA Unified not directing enough money to help low-income students, report charges (edsource.org)
Despite some incremental progress, Los Angeles Unified officials continue to “evade” the requirement of the state’s education funding formula to spend substantially more on schools serving low-income children and other students who generate additional revenue for the district, authors of a study released on Tuesday wrote. In their fourth annual analysis of spending in the state’s largest school district, the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and Communities of Los Angeles Student Success, a...
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LAUSD’s homeless student population grew by 50% last year (laschoolreport.com)
The number of homeless students at LA Unified grew by 50 percent last year to 17,258 students — the highest number recorded by the district. Because of that, you might think that LA Unified would be among the school districts in the state with the highest proportion of homeless students, but it doesn’t even crack the top 10. Proportion is the keyword. While LA Unified has the largest number of homeless students of any school district in the state — and is the largest school district in the...
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Los Angeles County Creates Its First Ever Youth Commission (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create the county’s first Youth Commission, answering long-standing calls from youth advocates to give young people a seat at the table shaping policies and programs that impact their lives. The commission, which will be open to 18- to 26-year-olds with experience in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, will monitor the outcomes of youth-serving county departments and will also offer recommendations to the board and...
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Los Angeles County Trauma and Resilience Network One Pager
Attached find a 2018 version of Los Angeles County community profile detailing information about your community ACEs initiative. This will be shared with CA legislators at the Trauma-Informed Policymaker Awareness Day on May 22nd in Sacramento. I attach it here as a PDF ready to print and share! I also have uploaded into 'Resources for Downloading' the same PDF, and an editable Word document so that you can update or otherwise improve it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach...