The year 2025 got off to a cold and soggy start, but that did not deter the Big River dippers, a group of about two dozen friends with a high tolerance for freezing cold water and a desire for a new perspective. We spoke with Hayley Ross who was bracing herself for her first dip. And, we all might want to brace ourselves for the changes 2025 will bringing, starting with a slew of new state laws. We look at three laws that will affect families with children and teens in Mendocino County.
SAFETY Act Protects Students from Pronoun Policies
California’s new Safety Act, effective Jan. 1, prevents school districts from requiring educators to disclose a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression without the student’s consent. Supporters say the law aims to protect students in potentially unsafe home environments, while critics argue it undermines parental rights. The law follows contentious debates in school districts across the state and could resurface in future statewide ballot measures.
AB 2865: Alcohol Education in Schools
After a DUI arrest in November 2023, Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo has introduced AB 2865, mandating that California schools educate students on the risks of excessive alcohol use. Carrillo’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when she crashed into parked cars. “This is my way of caring for the 14-year-old version of myself who didn’t know any better,” Carrillo said at a legislative hearing.
The Accountability in Children’s Treatment Act
A new California law, sponsored by State Senator Shannon Grove and Paris Hilton, aims to protect children in residential treatment facilities. The Accountability in Children’s Treatment Act mandates transparency about the use of seclusion and restraints. Hilton shared her personal experience of abuse in youth facilities during testimony, calling for better oversight of an industry she described as profit-driven and exploitative.
Excerpts from Paris Hilton's testimony:
"I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss how to improve care for the nearly 400,000 children living in the foster care system as we speak.
"While my experience was not through the foster care system, I know from personal experience the harm caused by youth residential treatment facilities. When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities.
"These programs promised healing, growth, and support but instead didn’t allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out a window for two years. I was force-fed medications, sexually abused by staff, violently restrained, and thrown into solitary confinement. My parents were deceived and manipulated by this for-profit industry.
"Can you imagine the experience of foster youth who don’t have advocates regularly checking in on them? Today, over 50,000 foster youth and countless adopted youth remain in lockdown facilities. Innocent kids who haven’t committed crimes, kids whose parents didn’t have resources to support them, kids whose parents passed away, or kids who have already experienced trauma.
"This $23 billion-a-year industry treats these children as dollar signs and operates without meaningful oversight. It costs $800 to $1,000 per day to place a foster youth in a facility. What’s more important? Protecting profits or protecting lives?”
"The new law requires additional reports whenever seclusion or restraints are used. Copies of these reports must be provided to the child, their parent or guardian, and the State Department of Social Services.
“I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss how to improve care for the nearly 400,000 children living in the foster care system as we speak.
"While my experience was not through the foster care system, I know from personal experience the harm caused by youth residential treatment facilities. When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities.
"These programs promised healing, growth, and support but instead didn’t allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out a window for two years. I was force-fed medications, sexually abused by staff, violently restrained, and thrown into solitary confinement. My parents were deceived and manipulated by this for-profit industry.
"Can you imagine the experience of foster youth who don’t have advocates regularly checking in on them? Today, over 50,000 foster youth and countless adopted youth remain in lockdown facilities. Innocent kids who haven’t committed crimes, kids whose parents didn’t have resources to support them, kids whose parents passed away, or kids who have already experienced trauma.
"This $23 billion-a-year industry treats these children as dollar signs and operates without meaningful oversight. It costs $800 to $1,000 per day to place a foster youth in a facility. What’s more important? Protecting profits or protecting lives?”
The new law requires additional reports whenever seclusion or restraints are used. Copies of these reports must be provided to the child, their parent or guardian, and the State Department of Social Services.