The Brief

With school out for the summer, some students may no longer have access to crucial support and services available during the academic school year, as fear and anxiety rise in their communities from ongoing immigration raids.

California schools are still safe havens for students attending summer school, meaning federal immigration officers are prohibited from entering them and child care facilities without proper legal authorization. But fears remain unabated for both children of immigrants and their friends, as federal immigration agents in California continue to detain, arrest and deport residents, in what community members say has become an indefinite fixture of the Trump administration.

Research shows that students are six times more likely to access mental health care during the school year than in the summer months, and that the absence of school-based services often leads to worsening mental health for students during the summer.

School social workers are unable to offer routine check-ins and on-campus counseling for students during the summer break, but families can take steps to support their child’s mental health and prepare for what experts are calling a child welfare and human rights crisis.

Talk through your child’s feelings

During the summer, children are much more likely to internalize traumatic events like raids on social media or outside of school, often in isolation and lacking the safe environment of a classroom to talk through their feelings about the day’s news.

To help them feel safe, school counselors and child psychologists recommend that families have truthful, open conversations about sweeps, rather than trying to shield them. Ahmanise Sanati, a school social worker in Los Angeles who works with children from immigrant communities as well as those unhoused, said families should start by asking children: “What have you heard?” and “How are you feeling?” They should then validate their child’s feelings of confusion, anxiety, grief or concern in developmentally appropriate ways, she said.

Both young and older children should understand their family’s risk profile — whether a family member could realistically be detained or deported by ICE, or whether they can be exposed to ICE agents in public spaces, for example. Families should spare younger children graphic or unnecessary details and limit or schedule older children’s social media use, Sanati said. Parents can assure their children that they’ll be OK, but not by telling them, “don’t be afraid” — because fear is a natural reaction.

Sanati says parents should center a child’s feelings, regardless of age, and that when feelings are repressed or minimized, witnessing raids, detentions and deportations, especially in childhood, can exacerbate risks of long-term mental illness.

“Children are already seeing masked individuals with weapons coming into the communities, tackling people and taking them away and putting them into vehicles,” Sanati said. “We have to acknowledge that some very scary things are happening in all of our communities — by lying about the magnitude of this, we may be risking our trust with our children in the future.”

Prepare for emergencies 

If a loved one is at risk of being detained or deported, families should prepare and rehearse a step-by-step emergency plan with their child.

Students age 12 and over can role-play scenarios in which they might have to call for legal assistance or help build their legal defense, such as by taking pictures and recording names, badge numbers and descriptions of encounters with immigration agents, if possible. If a family member is detained by ICE, they should ensure other family members, including children, and emergency contacts have a copy of their A-Number, which is assigned to an undocumented person by the Department of Homeland Security, if they have one. Older children and family members should also know how to use the ICE detainee locator to find someone in custody.

“One way to validate a child who is afraid is by letting them know that their family will be ready for a worst-case scenario,” said Marta Melendez, a social worker with LAUSD. “If you don’t feel safe picking up groceries, for example, we have volunteers doing that for families. It’s OK for parents to feel afraid — that should not keep them from seeking support.”

Create a child care plan

Since children are spending more time at home and less time on protected school grounds during the summer, families should also create a child care plan in case a child is left unsupervised due to detention or deportation.

They can arrange for their child to be under the care of another trusted adult, such as a relative, family friend or neighbor, through a verbal agreement. Since this option is an informal arrangement, families should note that the chosen caregiver will not have legal authority to make medical or school-related decisions for their child.

Alternatively, families can have a trusted caregiver complete a Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit, which would give them legal authority to make medical and school-related decisions on their child’s behalf. The CAA can only be used in California. It does not affect existing custody or parental rights.

Families can also have a state court appoint a guardian for their child, which, unlike a CAA, would grant the new guardian full legal and physical custody of the child. While guardianship does not terminate parental rights, it temporarily suspends them while the guardianship is in place. Families should seek legal counsel before considering this route.

If a child is a U.S. citizen, they should have their passports with them. They should also have important medical documents on file, including a list of medical conditions and medications, when applicable. Importantly, families should walk children through their child care plan and assure them that they will be cared for.

If families are unable to create a child care plan in case of an emergency, or if they become unhoused, they can go to any school that is open during the summer and ask to speak with their Pupil Services and Attendance counselor. Even if a child is not enrolled in summer school or programming, they have a right to stay on campus if there is no other safe location for them to go. PSA counselors can help families find long-term care for their child if necessary.

Families can follow Informed Immigrant steps, which provide guidance on protecting children and how to explain an emergency plan to them.

Find remote mental health support for your child 

Families with undocumented or legal status have become increasingly afraid of stepping out — even for doctor’s appointments.

With the risks of seeking in-person care, combined with a lack of on-campus counseling during the summer, students can utilize various remote mental health services and asynchronous resources available for free.

BrightLife Kids, a part of California’s CalHOPE program, provides online behavioral health support through one-on-one coaching with licensed wellness coaches, educational and self-help tools and peer communities. Children age 0 to 12, parents and caregivers can use the program’s remote services to help kids manage worries, express feelings like sadness, anger and frustration, and learn resilience, problem-solving and communication. Coaching services are offered in both English and Spanish. Kids, parents or caregivers do not need to be U.S. citizens, nor do they have to have health insurance. Families can sign up on the BrightLife Kids website here.

Soluna, which is also a part of the CalHOPE program, offers free, confidential mental health support for people 13–25 years old in California. The app allows young Californians to select coaches based on 30 areas of focus, including anxiety, loneliness, substance misuse and demographic preferences such as ethnicity and gender. Users can also join peer support groups in carefully moderated, confidential environments. The app download is available on the Soluna website here.

School-based wellness centers often have year-round mental health intervention and support services available for students. Many offer psychiatric social workers who provide services like trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and programs for children and families who have experienced adverse events or traumatic stress. A full list of wellness centers in California is available here.

Los Angeles Unified students and families can call 213-241-3840 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to get access to mental health services. Families can also directly refer their children to in-person or telehealth counseling through a referral form for the School Mental Health Clinics and Wellness Centers.

Practice healthy coping skills as a family 

According to Melendez, families can prepare for scenarios like an ICE raid, detention or deportation by preemptively building their and their child’s mental health tool kit, similar to an emergency plan. Research shows that even basic mindfulness interventions can mitigate the short- and long-term negative effects of stress and trauma, and these techniques, when taught bilingually, are especially effective for populations such as the Latino community.

To start, Melendez recommends learning mindfulness practices such as box breathing, butterfly hug, guided meditation and positive affirmation, which are common techniques known to help children regulate their nervous system, cope with symptoms of anxiety or depression and perform better in school. Parents and caregivers should practice these techniques with their child to model calming rituals and build emotional resilience as a family unit, Melendez said.

“You should also prioritize something that is a positive outlet for the child,” Melendez said. “Whether they like to play sports, to write about their feelings, draw about their feelings, sing about their feelings, if they want to dance about their feelings — make sure that they have a way of processing all the emotions that they are experiencing.”

Data indicate a spike in both substance use and feelings of sadness among adolescents during the summer, which worsens in part due to unstructured routine, increased isolation and increased social media use.

To create a sense of normalcy for children, Melendez said families should do their best to maintain healthy routines and hobbies during the summer, especially those that promote social connection with their peers.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

Long Beach’s speed cameras are now online at 18 locations throughout the city, and they’re here to stay until at least 2031. They started issuing warnings on Oct. 7, and they will start giving out tickets on Dec. 7.

It’s a big change. Many people have questions about how they work. Many others hope the cameras can finally slow down a stubborn surge in fatal crashes.

If you have a burning question, email jacob@lbpost.com. He might be able to find the answer.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the speed cameras?

The cameras are watching for speeding vehicles at 18 locations throughout Long Beach, with two in each City Council district.

Half of the cameras are on streets where deadly or severe crashes have occurred most often. The other half are in school zones or in areas where street racing is a problem.

How will the cameras work?

Tickets ranging from $50 to $500 start going out on Monday, Dec. 7. The cameras capture only the rear license plates of vehicles. Based on the license plate information, a citation is then sent to the car’s owner at the address where the car is registered.

If you don’t receive a warning during the 60-day warning period, then your first violation will be a warning instead of a citation.

Here’s how the cost of each ticket breaks down.

Payment is due within 30 days, but payment plans and diversion programs are available.

You can find more info on those here.

Where will the money go?

Long Beach officials estimate that citations will generate roughly $5 million in revenue in the first year, with half of that money going to cover the costs of administering the camera program.

The rest will pay for traffic-calming measures in neighborhoods where traffic studies have found they’re needed most. Those safety measures could include things like crosswalks, no-turn-on-red signs and speed humps.

The cameras are allowed as part of a state-approved pilot program that forbids the money from being spent on anything else.

Why does Long Beach have speed cameras?

Long Beach has been fighting a rising tide of deadly crashes in recent years. Last year saw the city’s highest total – 53 – in more than a decade. This year, there have been 41 fatal crashes, which is more than double the number of homicides.

Local officials see the cameras as part of the solution and lobbied for state authorization to install them under a pilot program. That program also authorizes them in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Glendale, Malibu and San Jose.

Citations are already being issued in San Francisco and Oakland.

Long Beach also got approval to install two more speed cameras on Pacific Coast Highway next year thanks to another state bill.

What other questions do you want answers to? Email jacob@lbpost.com to give us suggestions.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

Long Beach families can soon send their children to a free Westside dual-language preschool offering groceries, mental health support and special education services to students and their families.

The new school is housed in the West Facilities Center, a resource hub operated by the city’s Department of Health and Human Services. The center already includes a family health clinic and a Women, Infants, and Children office, and the preschool will augment those by offering wraparound services for the whole family in addition to early education for about 50 students. It’s an effort to invest in families on the Westside, an area of the city where existing providers can meet only 30% of the demand, according to a city press release.

The preschool, operated by the nonprofit Un Mundo de Amigos, is expected to open later this fall, but families can join a waitlist for the new preschool or immediately enroll at one of Un Mundo’s two other sites, according to the program director Yolanda Silva.

All families are welcome to apply, she said — Un Mundo de Amigos has no income requirements — but those with the highest need will be prioritized. That includes low-income families, families seeking employment and those with open court cases. Higher-income families can enroll if space allows, but they may pay a small fee.

Families interested in enrolling in the Westside preschool (or other sites) can contact Silva directly at yolanda@unmundodeamigos.com or by phone at 562-472-8099. They can also book a tour through the preschool’s website and specify that they are interested in the Westside location.

Why it’s opening now

Renovations to the Westside site were recently completed (to the tune of $1.8 million thanks to grants and state assistance Un Mundo received), but the project has been long in the works.

More than 15 years ago, Laurie Petersen founded Un Mundo de Amigos as a way to “give back to the community,” she said. She’d read research about the critical foundations preschool establishes for young children, and she wanted to direct resources toward the greatest need.

“I looked for the poorest ZIP code in the county of Los Angeles with the least number of preschool spaces per capita for four-year-olds,” she said. Central Long Beach came up, she said.

Six members of the Un Mundo team, from left to right: Etney Johnson, Xochilt Hurtado, founder and president Laurie Petersen, Program Director Yolanda Silva, Lessly Ramirez and Arely Castro.

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Photo courtesy of Yolanda Silva

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Petersen bought two used car lots on Long Beach Boulevard between 14th and 15th streets and built the first Un Mundo de Amigos “from the ground up,” she said. Since then, she has founded a nonprofit, donated the school to it and opened a second location downtown.

In recent years, she began exploring options for opening a third location on the Westside, which she called “a desert of resources.” A space at the West Facilities Center, which had been vacant for years, was a perfect option, she said.

It’s especially needed, Petersen said, because of how she has seen the preschool population change. Families are navigating economic challenges and a high cost of living, fears of immigration enforcement, impacts from COVID on young children’s language and development and a larger population of students with disabilities who may not be getting the services they need, she said. Those challenges mean many arrive to kindergarten and aren’t ready to be there, she said.

The interior of Un Mundo de Amigos in West Long Beach. The city of Long Beach celebrated the school’s opening at a ribbon-cutting in October.

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Photo courtesy of the city of Long Beach

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Un Mundo de Amigos aims to fill those gaps by building whole-family support into the school’s approach. Un Mundo preschools have food pantries on site, stocked with fresh organic fruits and vegetables as well as pantry staples and supplies like diapers. Mental health support for families is available twice a week, and they have access to medical clinics and dental care, Petersen said.

The new Westside school will offer early intervention, evaluation and services for students with disabilities — helping fill a critical gap for families, some of whom have to choose between going to work and taking their child to speech therapy, Petersen said.

Un Mundo staff and their partners offer programs and services onsite, since many families are fearful of seeking resources in public, Silva said. She emphasized that the Un Mundo team has worked to build strong relationships with the families they serve.

“It takes a lot for somebody to ask for help,” she said. “We built those relationships where they don’t hesitate if they’re going through a family emergency. They come to us,” she said.

The 61-year-old driver of a minivan that killed three people when it crashed outside a Los Angeles metro station during rush hour was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and three counts of murder, a police spokesperson said Wednesday.

Police have said the driver was taken out of the vehicle and was able to talk, but he appeared in shock after Tuesday’s crash. Officials were not immediately able to determine the cause or whether he acted intentionally.

Police identified the driver as Ihor Demianenko, a resident of the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, Officer Norma Eisenman said. She didn’t know whether he was still at a hospital early Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear if Demianenko had a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.

The crash at a busy intersection in the North Hollywood neighborhood also critically injured two women. The vehicle ended up under a food vendor’s tent, and Mayor Karen Bass said the victims included street vendors and pedestrians.

Investigators will go through video of the crash frame by frame, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said.

“It will be probably a prolonged but a very deliberate investigation to determine what happened here,” he said.

Luis Luna-Guzman was working at a burger stand nearby when he heard a loud boom and saw people on the ground along with food and cups. People nearby started running toward the crash.

As he moved closer, he found an injured woman lying near the bike racks, her face, arms and legs bloody, he said, recalling her eyes were closed as she moaned in pain.

“I told her, ‘Don’t move, help is coming,’” Luna-Guzman said, adding that he saw a woman’s body nearby, while another woman was lying unmoving on the stairs leading to the station.

Adrin Nazarian, a Los Angeles City Council member whose district includes North Hollywood, described the area as a close-knit community where there is always commotion and activity.

The minivan was on the sidewalk surrounded by debris Tuesday night with its driver’s side door open and an air bag deployed. Fire engines and emergency crews worked nearby as a helicopter flew overhead.

One entrance to the metro remained closed Tuesday night, but otherwise the property wasn’t impacted and the stations for the bus and subway were open, according to Jose Ubaldo, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Last week’s election was full of surprises, especially for California school districts seeking to fix leaking roofs and broken air conditioners.

Although election officials are still counting votes in many parts of the state, the preliminary results show that nearly half the school bonds on California ballots are failing.

“It’s a shocking outcome,” said Sara Hinkley, director of policy and research at UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities and Schools. “This leaves some school districts with very few options. I’m sure they’re sweating.”

Eighty-six school districts put bonds seeking to do school repairs and modernization on last week’s ballot, totaling $12.4 billion, a relatively low amount of money compared to other big election years. Two years ago, school bonds totaled almost four times that and most of them passed.

As of late Tuesday, 50 bonds had either passed or were leading, with the rest failing. Bonds need 55% to pass.

Painful cuts

School district officials blamed the shaky economy.

“Everyone wants what is best for the kids, but when gas, groceries and utilities are cutting into people's budget, they have to find places to save,” said Mays Kakish, superintendent of Beaumont Unified School District near Banning in the Inland Empire. “In the short term, this loss of funding will be painful.”

Beaumont, one of the few districts in California where enrollment is increasing, desperately needs the $86 million the bond would have brought in. Last year, its schools had 138 roof leaks, district spokesman Thomas Guzowski said. In addition, the district needs to replace 81 portable classrooms.

A 2024 state bond — Proposition 2 — that provided $10 billion for school construction, is an alternative source of money for some school districts. But districts need to provide matching funds to get Prop. 2 money, and if the bond fails Beaumont will not qualify, Guzowski said.

Regardless, most of the Prop. 2 money set aside for school repairs is already spoken for. There’s still money available for new construction projects and emergencies, but there’s a long waiting list for the remaining money to fix leaky roofs or make other maintenance repairs.

Rich get richer

John Affeldt, managing attorney at the public interest law firm Public Advocates, said he wasn’t surprised at the outcome of the school bond elections. Many bonds in wealthier areas like the Bay Area and Orange County tend to be for more money and usually pass, enabling those districts to get Prop. 2 money using matching funds. Bonds in lower-income areas, meanwhile, tend to be for less money and fail.

“Those who have more, get more,” Affeldt said. “It’s an unfair system, and part of a long pattern of the state’s failed system of financing facilities.”

Affeldt’s firm sued the state over the alleged inequities in Prop. 2 and is awaiting a judge’s decision on whether to grant the state’s request to throw out the case. Earlier this year, a judge denied the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction but said they had a “reasonable chance of succeeding” on at least part of the case.

Windfall in San Diego

San Diego Unified is on the other end of the school bond fortunes. Voters said “yes” to its $3.4 billion bond, the largest in California, ushering in a windfall for swimming pools, new performing arts venues, staff housing, new air conditioners, security systems and other upgrades. Homeowners will pay an average of $294 a year.

“It was a great night. I’m still on a high,” said school board vice president Sabrina Bazzo. “This means that all students in our district — not just those in wealthy neighborhoods — will get access to high-quality facilities.”

Basso attributed the bond’s success to plenty of community support. Labor unions threw their weight behind the measure, in part because the district agreed to hire local union workers for much of the work, Bazzo said. Even the local taxpayers association supported the bond, largely because it wasn’t a new tax; it replaced a previous bond from 2022.

Repair and replace

Visalia Unified near Fresno doesn’t look to be so lucky. Its bid for a $158 million bond is trailing and expected to lose.

“The economy is challenging right now for a lot of folks,” said Superintendent Kirk Shrum. “I’m disappointed, thinking about what we could have done — upgraded bathrooms, new furniture — and now we have to wait.”

More than 70% of the district’s buildings are 50 years old or older, and are in dire need of repairs, Shrum said. A few years ago, the district assessed the condition of its buildings and the total for repairs came to $600 million. That seemed too high for a bond, so the district went with $158 million, the amount needed for only the most urgent projects.

Without the bond money, the district will shift funds around to pay for repairs when needed, but “we’ll never be able to get ahead of it,” Shrum said.

“You get stuck in a cycle of replace and repair when things break,” Shrum said. “But you can patch a roof only so many times.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.