The Brief

It’s been six months since Los Angeles County launched a new program aimed at getting more people with serious mental illness into treatment, but the number of petitions so far is much lower than expected.

Known as CARE Court, the program that launched Dec. 1 allows family members, behavioral health workers, first responders and others to petition a court to step in with a voluntary care plan for someone living with serious mental illness, like schizophrenia.

State authorities estimated that L.A. County would have as many as 1,900 petitions by now, but as of this week only 155 have been submitted — about 8% of what was projected. About 500 petitions have been filed statewide.

From those petitions, 13 participants now have treatment plans or agreements in place, county authorities said.

Orange County, which launched its CARE Court program in October, has three treatment agreements in place.

“Although maybe folks would like to see larger numbers, I think we see change one life at a time,” said Martin Jones, a program manager with the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, which oversees the program. “I think we see success one story at a time, and I think that there’s some significant work happening here.”

LA still leads other counties 

Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state leaders have billed CARE Court as a way to get people the lifesaving treatment they need and as one tool for addressing California’s homelessness crisis.

Some mental health advocacy groups have opposed CARE Court, saying it inappropriately coerces people into treatment and strips them of certain rights. In 2022, 40 groups — including JusticeLA, Disability Rights California and ACLU California Action — signed a letter saying the program would strip “people with mental health disabilities of their right to make their own decisions about their lives.”

While in the program, county authorities work to create agreements between the participant and behavioral health workers that focus on what the voluntary treatment the person will entail. If they can’t agree, the court orders the care plan.

Los Angeles leads other counties in the state on the number of petitions, agreements and plans put in place so far, according to the Department of Mental Health. It’s also the county in the state with the largest population.

Marco Saenz, a deputy public defender and program director of the Independent Defense Counsel Office, told LAist the state was projecting 1,938 CARE Court petitions in L.A. County during the first six months after the launch. The Independent Defense Counsel Office, which is separate from but administered by the county Public Defender’s Office, worked to select a panel of 50 attorneys who will work with program participants.

‘It takes a while...’ 

As of May 31, there were 502 petitions filed statewide, according to Anne Hadreas, supervising attorney with the Judicial Council of California’s Center for Families, Children and the Courts.

Those petitions are from the first cohort of counties that launched CARE Court programs, including L.A., Orange, San Diego, San Francisco, Riverside and others.

“Since the goal of this is so much involved with outreach and engagement, it takes a while,” Hadreas said. “So these cases don’t always move as quickly as I think people thought they would.”

Recalling one case in particular, Jones said a team worked with a man for weeks to gain his trust before they were able to move him into medical care. Later, they learned he had an infection in one of his limbs and likely would have died without treatment.

Of the existing 155 petitions, at least 120 are still active, Jones said, adding that the county may provide services to people even if they are not the right fit for the program.

He said the county is aiming for more voluntary agreements than court-ordered treatment plans.

But that work takes time, especially when participants are living on the streets or go missing.

Supervising attorney Melanie Snider with the Center for Families, Children and the Courts said L.A. County has designated “private spaces” in 11 state courthouses where participants can use computers to make their court appearances virtually or connect with mental health providers.

She said she is pleased with the work the county has done to get resources in front of people, even if they aren’t eligible for CARE Court.

More petitions possible? 

Some mental health advocates question whether enough people who might benefit from the program are aware that it exists.

“The number of petitions that are possible versus the number of petitions that are actually in the door, I think there’s a huge delta and what is the reason for that?” said Brittney Weissman, vice chair of the L.A. County Mental Health Commission. Weissman is also executive director of Hollywood 4WRD, a coalition that hopes to address homelessness in Hollywood.

Research from the California Policy Lab shows that in 2020 there were, at minimum, 4,500 unhoused people in L.A. County who had been diagnosed with a psychotic spectrum disorder, like schizophrenia.

Jones, from the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, said CARE Court provides support for family members who have struggled for years to get their loved ones help. More than 140 of the petitions received so far have come from family members of someone living with mental illness.

It’s not a quick process, he said, especially when some participants are suspicious of the program or may have experienced trauma.

“This is tough work, but it’s also rewarding. And it takes time,” Jones said.

California Democrats are targeting a handful of vulnerable GOP state legislators in hopes of flipping their seats blue.

What are their chances? Tuesday’s election results will offer an early clue.

Embattled Republicans from Sacramento to San Diego have drawn a crowded field of Democratic challengers. The primary, where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, will decide which Democrats will face off against those GOP incumbents in November.

Democrats in those competitive districts are banking on President Donald Trump’s waning popularity and the impact of his policies — chiefly high tariffs, immigration crackdowns and the war in Iran — to hurt Republicans. To fend off the challenges, GOP incumbents have tried to keep Trump’s name at a distance while appealing to their base of Trump loyalists.

In Riverside County, expect a rematch between Assemblymember Leticia Castillo, a Corona Republican, and Democratic Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, who lost two years ago by a razor-thin margin despite amassing a significant war chest. Tonight’s election will likely foreshadow the results in November, when the two will meet again for a final matchup.

In the Coachella Valley, three Democrats are vying to unseat GOP Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez of Coachella, who has adopted a more moderate perspective on immigration than his fellow Republican colleagues. Similarly, in three other purple districts, from northern Sacramento County to Orange County, tonight’s election will test the Republicans’ popularity.

Democrats are also playing defense in Southern California: Sen. Catherine Blakespear, an Encinitas Democrat, faces Republican challenger Laura Bassett tonight in the toss-up district in San Diego County.

In some of California’s deepest blue corners, Democrats running for open seats are fighting each other to break through. In the coastal Southern California district that includes Malibu and Santa Monica, half a dozen Democrats are vying to succeed Sen. Ben Allen, who is running for insurance commissioner. In Los Angeles, a fierce five-way race has split some of the most powerful labor unions and Democratic groups to replace Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gipson, who will term out by the end of the year.

In San Diego, the race to replace GOP Sen. Brian Jones, who is also terming out, is a battle between two Republican factions that offers a glimpse into the future direction of the party: Will a moderate San Marcos city councilmember endorsed by Jones be more palatable than a far-right firebrand? We’ll find out.

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

Some elected offices are pit stops. California’s lieutenant governor is one of them.

Voting ends on Tuesday and voters are choosing between an unusually competitive roster of candidates for the No. 2 job in the state, an office few aspire to without one key disclaimer: It’s a step on their way to another job in politics.

The lieutenant governor wields little power beyond stepping in when the governor leaves the state. But it’s been used as a slingshot to the governor’s office before, by Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Gov. Gray Davis, and seeking the office is often a signal that its officeholder has higher political ambitions.

State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Newsom administration official Josh Fryday and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs are the leading Democratic candidates in a top-two primary that will send two candidates on to the November general election. Fryday, who heads volunteer programs for the state, has amassed the biggest treasure chest — nearly $4 million — and is backed by teachers unions and the governor.

Ma, a longtime politician with deep roots in San Francisco, has endorsements from influential labor unions and has raised about $2.8 million. But her run for the second-highest statewide office is shadowed by 2021 sexual harassment allegations that Tubbs supporters have latched onto. Ma has called the allegation “frivolous”, but the state paid $350,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by one of her former employees.

Tubbs was among the first to announce his campaign in 2024. Once a progressive star, he rose to political stardom 10 years ago as a young big city mayor who piloted a guaranteed income program in Stockton. Ousted by a Republican newcomer, his political career seemed to fade and he went on to lead Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, an advocacy organization. It’s his first crack at public office since then, and he’s garnered support from progressive Democrats and the powerful union SEIU California.

Longtime state lawmaker Gloria Romero is the leading Republican. Romero spent 12 years representing east Los Angeles in the state Legislature as a Democrat. She switched parties in 2024.

Higher education at the forefront

The major Democratic candidates have struggled to set themselves apart on policy. Because the lieutenant governor sits on all three college governing boards, each has claimed they would work to make universities build more housing and lower tuition costs. This has included practical solutions from directing Federal Student Aid applicants to food assistance program CalFresh, to more far-fetched ones such as free tuition for in-demand programs such as nursing.

The lieutenant governor also sits on the commission responsible for millions of acres of public land. Fryday thinks identifying more undeveloped land to build student housing on will help lower tuition costs.

Ma wants Cal State universities, which rely heavily on state funding, to find other revenue sources through partnerships with private companies.

At an April candidate debate in Los Angeles, Tubbs said he supports freezing tuition but did not elaborate on how he would make up the loss in revenue.

Romero seeks greater transparency about faculty, salaries and housing allowances and would push for more student representation on the UC Board of Regents.

To set themselves apart, the Democrats have leaned on their distinct backgrounds. Fryday has made clean energy a core part of his campaign as a former executive of a clean energy organization started by billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. Ma has framed the job as another bulwark against the Trump administration. Tubbs, who works as an unpaid economic adviser to Newsom, has focused on affordability and cutting tuition for low-income families.

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

A quiet primary race for state superintendent of public instruction is winding down Tuesday, with no clear front-runner emerging from a wide field of well-qualified candidates for California’s top schools job.

Ten candidates — including several legislative veterans — are vying for the opportunity to oversee the state’s 10,000 public K-12 schools during a tumultuous time. Schools are grappling with AI in the classroom, budget uncertainty, declining enrollment, lackluster test scores and other challenges.

The job itself is also up in the air. Gov. Gavin Newsom in January proposed an overhaul of California’s school governance structure, with far fewer duties for the superintendent. Instead, the State Board of Education, an 11-member body appointed by the governor, and a newly appointed education commissioner would hold most of the decision-making power. The superintendent would act as more of a policy advocate.

The shift would streamline a cumbersome and often opaque bureaucracy, adding transparency and accountability, Newsom said. It would also align California with most other states. Candidates for the superintendent position blasted the proposal, saying it takes away power from voters and concentrates too much control with the governor’s office.

Newsom and the current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, are both termed out this year.

Charter schools are no longer a divisive issue

The race for superintendent — at times, in previous election cycles, one of the most expensive and contentious races on the ballot — has been unusually quiet this year. In the most recent poll, conducted in April, no candidate garnered more than 10% of voters’ support, and 32% of voters were undecided. As of last week, no candidate had raised more than a few hundred thousand dollars. That’s in contrast to the 2018 superintendent race between Thurmond and Marshall Tuck, a former charter school executive, which generated more than $50 million in donations.

But there have been a few surprises in the race. The California Teachers Association and its historic nemesis, the California Charter Schools Association, endorsed the same candidate: Richard Barrera, a San Diego Unified school board member who was little known outside San Diego until this year. Both groups cited his accomplishments on the school board and his commitment to public education.

The dual endorsement shows how much has changed in education debates. For the past two decades, charter schools have been the No. 1 division in the superintendent’s race, generating millions in campaign donations from both sides. This year the subject has barely been mentioned, probably because charter school enrollment appears to have plateaued and both types of schools are now dealing with the same issues.

Another surprise has been the popularity of Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board. Shaw made headlines in 2023 when she took on Thurmond over the privacy rights of transgender students, and has made anti-LGBTQ policies the focus of her campaign. In the April poll, she was tied with Barrera.

Other top candidates include: Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, former head of the Assembly education committee; Josh Newman, former head of the Senate education committee; Anthony Rendon, former speaker of the Assembly and a longtime early education program administrator; Nichelle Henderson, a Los Angeles Community College District board member, and Ainye Long, a teacher in San Francisco Unified.

The nonpartisan position pays $210,460 a year.

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