- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Lakeport City Council hears about ‘State of Our Children’ report, asked to partner with groups to improve outcomes
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday heard a presentation on a new report on Lake County’s children, one that describes major challenges in terms of education, health and social factors.
A group of local organizations, led by First 5 Lake County, appeared before the council on Tuesday night to offer a presentation on the “State of Our Children” report.
First 5 Executive Director Carla Ritz introduced the presentation, explaining that she is daily confronted with the needs of Lake County’s children, but at the same time she also daily rubs shoulders with people and organizations doing the work to meet those challenges.
Ritz said outcomes for Lake County’s children are discouraging and deeply concerning. Those outcomes are illustrated in the State of Our Children report, which was the result of 10 months of research.
In January, a group of Lake County organizations formed a partnership to begin the research. Ritz said those groups include Lake County Probation, the Lake County Office of Education, Lake Family Resource Center, Lake County Department of Child Welfare Services, Lake County Department of Social Services, Lake County Public Health, Redwood Community Services, Lake County Children’s Council, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Redwood Coast Regional Center, Lake County Tribal Health, Adventist Health Clear Lake, Motherwise, Lakeview Health Center, Easterseals Northern California, North Coast Opportunities and First 5 Lake County.
Kim Tangermann, director of Lakeview Health Center, told the council that in 2015, SafeRX launched to address opioid issues and to better support providers by developing policies and writing prescribing guidelines. Since then, Lake County has seen a 75-percent reduction in opiate prescriptions overall and more than a 50-percent reduction in initial opiateprescanother starts.
However, Tangermann said they continue to see a rise in perinatal drug use and fetal alcohol and substance use exposure, and low rates of women getting prenatal care in the first trimester, and all of those factors contribute to an extremely rough start for local children, who have had more than their fair share of trauma-related events.
She said the number of children using drugs is on the increase, with the age of first use dropping to age 8.
Tangermann said she finds the situation unacceptable and extremely preventable.
In addition, Tangermann said they are seeing a rise in teen pregnancies, with the young women not getting early care during their pregnancies besides using drugs.
She said they need to call for “all hands on deck,” and said collectively local leaders can make a difference. The community needs to make youth a priority. “This is the call to action.”
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg followed Tangermann to the podium.
“Study after study shows that the key to addressing the long term vitality of any community is through our youth,” said Falkenberg, explaining that education and its related outcomes are an important part of every child’s development.
Lake County’s schools are staffed by caring and dedicated teachers and classified staff, yet the report candidly shows Lake County’s education gap, he said.
He said there have been improvements in test scores over the past four years, including third grade reading.
In spite of that fact, over the past five years Lake County’s students have experienced shortened school years due to fires, floods and now public safety power shutoffs. Falkenberg said children in Lake County start school already behind their counterparts in more affluent counties.
“We need to do more and we need to do it faster than other counties. The gap is wide and we need to acknowledge that,” he said.
“We’re also asking for help. We need the community to buy into the fact that youth are the key to our future vitality, that school is important and graduation matters,” Falkenberg said.
Falkenberg offered a fact not in the report: A comparison of attendance rates for first through third grade students showed that Lake County has the lowest school attendance rate of any county in California.
“These kids are not choosing to stay home from school, these kids are prevented from attending school by their parents who are unable or unwilling to get them there everyday,” he said.
Falkenberg said a variety of factors – including poverty, adverse childhood experiences, generational trauma, homelessness, absentee parents and addiction – are barriers to success that the community needs to overcome.
Nobel Laureate James Heckman has studied early childhood programs from an economic perspective. His findings determined that every dollar invested a 13 percent return per annum. Falkenberg said that’s an investment he wants to make, and one that isn’t subject to the swings and sways of the stock market.
“By leveraging resources and collaboratively addressing the fundamental needs of youth today, we can assure the social and economic vitality critical to sustaining our county and our communities for the next 60 years,” Falkenberg said.
Falkenberg said the schools and staff are committed to that goal, and they asked the city to join them.
Wendy Mondfrans, Lake County’s chief deputy probation officer, told the council that in 2018 there were 925 reports of child abuse or neglect made in Lake County. That equates to one report every 10 hours.
Of those, there were 117 substantiated victims of child abuse; 76.9 percent were for general neglect and 15.4 percent for caretaker absence or incapacity, she said.
Mondrans said that as a result, last year 73 children entered foster care through Lake County’s child welfare system.
Additionally, 336 youth were arrested; of those, 71 percent were males. Mondrans said 154 of those children were placed on probation.
She said there are an average of six Lake County youth in juvenile hall at any one time. They currently are housed in Tehama County.
Of the 154 youth on probation, nine are in foster care as a result of their actions and home instability, she said.
Mondfrans said the community can help reduce the risk that these families become one of the statistics through protective factors, which are things that strengthen families. They include parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need, and social and emotional competence of children.
She asked the city to consider these factors when making decisions that affect children and families in Lakeport.
Among the speakers were two teenagers, Abigail and Genesis Gorrin, who shared the story of Allison, a former Lakeport Unified School District student, who was placed in foster care at the age of 18 months.
When her foster family picked her up at Children’s Hospital in Oakland on Christmas Eve, Allison was covered from head to toe with bruises and lacerations, and was suffering from a concussion and a lacerated liver. She had been exposed to both drugs and alcohol in utero
Allison was adopted by the Scott family and is now 18 years old. While school has never been easy for her, she worked hard and will be studying at San Jose State to pursue a career as a pediatrician.
Ritz asked for the city’s support in four ways, including requesting a town hall to share the report with residents; permission to add the city’s logo to the report; asking for a city representative to attend as many Children’s Council and Resilient Lake County meetings as possible in 2020 in order to take part in creating a prevention plan; and considering what they can do to promote primary prevention themselves.
“That was a very moving and informative presentation from your group,” said Mayor Tim Barnes.
Councilwoman Stacey Mattina asked if the request from the group could be put on a council agenda.
Barnes said he was baffled by the report of Lake County having the lowest attendance in California for first through third graders. He asked if there is a truancy officer.
“There is no longer a truancy officer functioning within this county,” Falkenberg said, adding that there is no funding. It’s the same story for some neighboring counties, he added.
Falkenberg said he would be happy to come back and talk about truancy in more detail. Councilwoman Mireya Turner suggested it would be good to include such a report in a town hall.
Jennifer Nielson a licensed therapist and director of behavioral health services for Lake Family Resource Center, has a goal of training 1,000 people in Lake County as part of a child sexual abuse prevention program.
She said she wanted the opportunity to train city council members and staff. Barnes said he would go.
“This is a difficult topic to think about,” said Turner, her voice breaking as she said the county is fortunate to have a dedicated group of people fighting for it every day.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said staff would bring back a discussion of the city joining the report partnership for the next council meeting.
Also on Tuesday, the council held a public hearing and approved the first reading of an ordinance establishing a “dig once” policy for telecommunications infrastructure in the Lakeport Municipal Code to encourage coordination of projects in order to lower costs and increase services.
The council held another public hearing and approved the first reading of an ordinance for permitting and regulating wireless facilities.
In other business, the council directed staff to take back options for concrete finishes for the proposed Lakeport promenade to the Parks and Recreation Committee and approved a resolution proposed by Police Chief Brad Rasmussen to support the Keeping California Safe Act, meant to address the consequences of the state’s criminal realignment, and the ballot initiatives propositions 47 and 57.
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