Children-and-youth

A state senator wants to send no-strings-attached checks to homeless high school seniors in California, where basic income programs are beginning to “feel a lot more like a movement.”

California will soon lift the mask mandate for children in schools and child care facilities, but experts say the move is premature.

A group of California legislators has crafted vaccine laws that would be the most aggressive state approach to vaccines in the nation.

Child care centers were already struggling prior to the omicron variant. Now a dire situation has gotten even worse.

The number of California children diagnosed with COVID-19 during the omicron variant surge has "skyrocketed," challenging earlier notions that the coronavirus largely bypassed children. Child vaccination rates are relatively low, and children who contract COVID-19 could be at increased risk for rare conditions and diabetes.

Under California’s system for supporting children’s mental health, the state needs to first tackle the system’s deficiencies.

Mental health is now the leading cause of hospitalization of children under 18 in California. This crisis facing youth and their families is staggering. In addition to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, young people face existential threats like climate change, gun violence in schools as well as communities, civil rights crises, and an uncertain […]

County child welfare leaders and social workers are stymied by a lack of tools needed to best support foster youth.

California’s child care workforce is still 10% smaller than it was before the pandemic, as low wages contribute to acute staffing shortages.

A permanent investment in supportive services could help keep children out of our foster care system.