Latest news with #PREP
San Francisco Chronicle
14 hours ago
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump administration orders California to remove ‘disturbing gender ideology' from sex ed program
The Trump administration has given California 60 days to strip all references to gender identity from a federally funded sex education program or risk losing its funding. In a letter sent Friday to the California Department of Public Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families called the state's Personal Responsibility Education Program 'noncompliant' with federal law. The agency cited 'disturbing gender ideology content,' including passages explaining that gender identity can differ from biological sex and that some individuals identify as transgender or nonbinary. 'The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,' said Andrew Gradison, ACF's acting secretary, in a statement. 'The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose.' PREP, which receives approximately $6 million in federal support, is designed to educate youth on contraception, abstinence and preventing sexually transmitted infections. California officials said the program targets vulnerable populations, such as youth in homeless shelters and juvenile justice facilities. Among the flagged content were educational materials describing gender identity as a 'deep-seated, internal sense' and including terms such as 'cisgender,' 'transgender' and 'genderqueer.' The agency stated that such material exceeds the scope of PREP's authorizing statute. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Hill that the state was first made aware of the directive through Fox News. 'To be clear: this is NOT California's K-12 sex education curriculum,' the spokesperson noted, calling it an 'effective, evidence-based program model.' The latest announcement comes just days after the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's law banning gender-affirming medical care — such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy — for transgender minors.
The Hill
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
California given deadline to overhaul sex education program
The Trump administration gave California a 60-day deadline to overhaul its sex education program or risk losing federal funding. California must eliminate 'all gender ideology references' in its program and curriculum, the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services said in a letter to the state. The administration condemned the federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) for teaching gender identity is different from a child's biological sex. 'The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,' said Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. 'The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools.' The Hill has reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) office for comment. The department said it is also investigating other grant recipients that administer PREP to ensure similar concepts are not taught in other areas of the country. The announcement comes days after the Supreme Court ruled Tennessee's ban on medical care for transgender kids is legal. It also comes after the Department of Education has opened investigations into numerous school districts who have allowed transgender individuals to play on girls' sports teams.
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
HHS gives California deadline to overhaul federally-funded sex ed program 'indoctrinating' kids
The Trump administration is giving California's federally funded sex education program 60 days to remove all references to gender identity or face potential termination of its funding. California's Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant has been under scrutiny by the Trump administration since at least March, when the HHS's Administration for Children and Families (ACF) requested the federally funded state-operated program send copies of its curriculum and other relevant course materials to them for review. According to ACF, the probe was initiated to ensure the state's sexual education programming is medically accurate and age-appropriate. The agency said in a Friday notice sent to California's PREP program, reviewed by Fox News Digital, that following its examination of the program's curriculum and other teaching materials, it found a litany of subjects and language within the course materials deemed to fall outside the program's "authorizing statute," in particular references to "gender ideology." As a result, ACF said it halted their review for "medical accuracy," since the content it found is not statutorily allowed in the first place. "The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children," said ACF's acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. "The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools." Among the materials ACF found, which it now wants to be removed, was a lesson for middle school-aged students that seeks to introduce them to the concepts of transgenderism. "We've been talking during class about messages people get on how they should act as boys and girls—but as many of you know, there are also people who don't identify as boys or girls, but rather as transgender or gender queer," the lesson states to students. "This means that even if they were called a boy or a girl at birth and may have body parts that are typically associated with being a boy or a girl, on the inside, they feel differently." ACF flagged parts of the curriculum for high school-aged students as well, which gets into topics like differentiating between "social transitioning" and "medical transitioning." The high school-aged materials also include instruction on what it means to be "non-binary" and language that tells students "gender-identity" is "essentially a social status." Teacher training materials part of the California PREP program were among other aspects of the California sex-ed curriculum that were flagged by ACF. "All people have a gender identity," the teacher training materials state. They also instruct educators to refer to people who follow the biological marker they are "assigned at birth" as "cisgender" and adds that those who are not "cisgender" may identify as "non-binary, agender, bigender, genderfluid, [or] genderqueer." In ACF's notice, the agency pointed out that under the authorizing statute that established California's PREP program, it is defined as a program designed to educate young people mainly on abstinence, contraception and avoiding sexually transmitted infections, like HIV/AIDS. "The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa," ACF's notice to California PREP states. "We are aware that this curricula and other program materials were previously approved by ACF," the notice continues. "However, the prior administration erred in allowing PREP grants to be used to teach students gender ideology because that approval exceeded the agency's authority to administer the program consistent with the authorizing legislation as enacted by Congress." California now has 60 days to remove all gender ideology references from its PREP curricula and other program materials, and then it must resend its materials for approval by ACF. If California fails to make the necessary changes requested by the Trump administration, the agency says it has the authority to withhold, disallow, suspend or terminate the federal grant currently funding California's PREP program.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MaineGeneral Health cutting mental health, disabilities services for children
May 5—MaineGeneral Health confirmed Monday that it is cutting pediatric psychological services in central Maine — a move advocates say will make it more difficult to access care for children with mental health challenges, autism, attention deficit, and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nathan Howell, president and CEO of MaineGeneral Health, the parent organization of MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, said in a written statement on Monday that "PREP and psychological services" at the Edmund Ervin Pediatric Center are closing as of May 16. The Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program, or PREP, provides services to children recently placed in the foster care system, while psychological services are for a broader pediatric patient mix. Howell said the reasons for the cutbacks are financial, as "health care across Maine and the nation is in a crisis." The cuts are because state "reimbursements do not cover the cost of care, excessive insurance denials and increased costs of doing business." The Ervin center is currently operating at a $1 million annual loss, MaineGeneral said. Nancy Cronin, executive director of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council, a quasi-governmental agency funded by federal and state dollars, said the Ervin center shuttering some of its services will make it difficult for some parents — especially those with MaineCare — to obtain a diagnosis for their child. Without a diagnosis, pediatric patients would not qualify for needed services, Cronin said. "We've lost a huge piece of the puzzle," Cronin said. "It's like a bridge has been blown up." Cronin said over time, beginning in the LePage administration, the state reduced financial support under MaineCare for diagnostic services for children with mental, intellectual and developmental disabilities. Cronin said the cuts have never been restored since Janet Mills became governor in 2019, leading to an erosion in these services. While the MaineGeneral cuts will directly affect families who live in central Maine, Cronin said it follows the loss of services in other parts of the state and that access will become a more acute problem. Cronin is hoping to rally support to provide more robust funding for diagnostic services and for PREP, either by the Mills administration tapping into the state's rainy day fund or through legislation. "What we are doing is creating enormous barriers to get children what they need," Cronin said. "This is going to be a nightmare." Cronin said she does not blame MaineGeneral for the cutbacks, but rather considers it a failure by the state to sufficiently fund the programs. Lindsay Hammes, a Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, said in a written statement that the agency "is disappointed to learn of MaineGeneral's decision." "It is a business decision made independently by the hospital," Hammes said. "We are reviewing options to support impacted families within existing services." Howell said in his statement that "while we recognize the impact of these changes, we will continue to offer 95% of our current services through our robust pediatric and outpatient rehabilitation service lines." Those services include speech therapy, physical therapy, counseling and medication management. The Edmund Ervin center name will be retired, with the remaining services falling under the MaineGeneral umbrella. The cutbacks come in the wake of a September 2024 lawsuit against the Mills administration by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to provide adequate behavioral health services to children in the Medicaid program, which is called MaineCare in the state. That lawsuit was settled in November, with the state agreeing to boost services. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Once-homeless student wins Volusia schools' version of 'Shark Tank' with food-prep concept
DELAND – Healthy, fresh prepped foods for SNAP recipients. Nickel-free jewelry for people with sensitive skin. Kits of items newly independent college students don't yet know they need. Aspiring entrepreneurs from three Volusia County high schools dropped these and other ideas for businesses onto panels of judges with business backgrounds in a "Shark Tank"-like competition Thursday, with at least one – first-place winner Geo Hoffmann, a senior at Spruce Creek High School – qualifying for a similar regional event in Miami next month with the potential to move on to a national pitch competition. Students at Spruce Creek, Mainland and DeLand high schools are in a course aligned with standards established by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Each school had its own competition and 17 made it to the district-wide event at Stetson Baptist Church in DeLand. "This is taught in our high schools to give that entrepreneurial mindset to students," said Vince Roeshink, the career-technical education specialist at Volusia County Schools, "so that they can try to learn how to start a business, what it takes to do that from startup to operating costs, the finance portions of it and there's a pitch deck that has to cover a variety of items." Working through the competition gives students skills – not the least of which is public speaking and networking. School Board member Krista Goodrich, who has started several businesses herself, attended the event and said it's "wildly important" to provide entrepreneurial skill-building in high school. "I think if they start formulating those ideas now, and start learning about the entire process of starting a business, it will give them quite a few steps ahead of kids that aren't learning that," said Goodrich, who was 23 when she started building her first business. "I had no background of how to get a business license, how to start a business, how to get funding. Would I take a loan? Would I do (venture capital) money? How did all of that work?" she said. "We weren't taught this when I was in school. ... I was the first entrepreneur of my friend group." Hoffmann pitched PREP – Prepare Recipies, Expand Possibilities – a meal-prep service aimed at low-income families who rely upon government assistance programs, including SNAP, and can struggle to find fresh, healthy food both because of cost and the phenomenon of food deserts, neighborhoods without grocery stores. A New York native, Hoffmann knows of which he speaks. He said his family has struggled the point of being homeless at times. And his idea also stems from his job at Perrine's Produce in Port Orange. "We ship off meal-prep to families who can't really afford the super-expensive stuff," Hoffmann said. "It would be around $8.50 per meal, so super cost-affordable. "Pretty much the main goal is making sure everybody can afford healthy, nutritious meals," he said. Before learning he had won, Hoffmann said he was most proud of being cool while giving his presentation in front of a bigger audience than a high school classroom. "I wasn't really worried about what anybody else was presenting. I was just worried about me, doing my own thing," he said. "And I'm happy with what I've done today." Hoffmann intends to enroll at Daytona State College and become a certified public accountant, while minoring in firefighting. Asked about having an entrepreneurial mind, he offered a simple response: "I like solving problems." Hoffmann said he's learned the best way to build a business is by networking. "The biggest lesson that you can learn is how to talk to people," he said. Even after presenting, Payton Bonino, a Spruce Creek junior, admitted she felt "so scared, so nervous." Regardless, judges found her concept of affordable hypoallergenic jewelry to be worthy of second place. It wasn't her first idea, she said. She started, vaguely, with wanting to do something with jewelry. She wanted to do something to customize accessories with "detachable pendants," but a recent episode at school got her thinking differently. "I have a severe nickel allergy. I have scars on my finger and on the back of my neck from wearing jewelry that was not nickel-free," she said. "And I literally got sent home from lunch the other day because I wore a necklace that was not nickel-free, and 15 minutes later, I had rashes forming." So she came up with a company she called Bella. "I started realizing there was a much bigger problem that I could address other than just customization," Bonino said. "And I could address a much more toxic point in the jewelry industry, which was the hypoallergenic, where either you have to choose between comfort and spending hundreds of dollars in jewelry." Third-place finisher Payton Garner, a senior at Mainland High School and founder of the EssentialCube, said the transition from high school to college "can be very overwhelming and time consuming," particularly the part about moving into a dorm. "The EssentialCube is a cost effective and family-focused tote that comes with all the essentials that you don't know you need yet," Garner said during one of her pitches. "It also allows for being a dependent upon your parents to becoming independent." She presented the EssentialCube as a curated selection of items for students moving into dorms, including a power strip, a mini tool kit, ice tray, sponge, collapsible laundry basket and other items. One of the judges, Brad Harris, business manager for the Volusia County Division of Economic Development, was taken with Garner's idea. "In this case, I had a personal experience where a family member bought me kind of the essentials for college," he said. "I could relate to that." Harris said the best pitches are a combination of research and personal testimony that solve a real problem. "In my mind, whenever I hear a creative idea like you heard today, I start thinking of opportunities to expand and grow," he said, "and I saw potential in (Garner's pitch) to grow far beyond what I think she's envisioning right now." This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia students pitch business ideas in 'Shark Tank'-like competition
