California vaccine bill SB 277 signed into law by Jerry Brown

Ending months of speculation, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law Senate Bill 277, which requires almost all California schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated in order to attend public or private school, regardless of their parents' personal or religious beliefs.

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California Legislature Passes 'Mandatory' Vaccine Bill, Sends It To The Governor

A bill that would make vaccinations a requirement for nearly every schoolchild passed the California Legislature. The bill, SB 277, is now on its way to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. It's one of the toughest vaccination bills in the country, according to theLos Angeles Times.

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California vaccine bill clears major legislative hurdle – Pharmaceutical Processing

If the bill does become law, California will have one of the strictest vaccination regulations for school kids in the USA California was at the center of a high-profile measles outbreak that spread across the USA. Those children will still be able to enroll in school as conditional entrants, meaning they are behind on their shots but intend to get them, said Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon.

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Drugging Our Kids: Documentary wins Murrow Award

"Drugging Our Kids," this newspaper's series about the excessive use of psychiatric drugs in California's foster care system, was honored Wednesday with an Edward R. Murrow Award for the country's best news documentary video by a large online organization.

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California Bans Religious and Philosophical Vaccine Exemptions for Schoolchildren

Lawmakers in California on Thursday approved legislation that would make essential vaccines mandatory for all children entering preschool or kindergarten in the state. The bill prohibits parents from seeking vaccine exemption for religious and philosophical reasons. The Assembly approved the legislation 46-30. California Governor Jerry Brown has not stated whether he will sign the bill, but many speculate he will. If so, the law will go into effect on July 1, 2016.

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Students with ADHD benefit from being allowed to fidget in class

SCHOOL children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be encouraged to fidget in class, two new studies suggest.

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Parental permission not needed for child vaccination, top court rules

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled parental permission is not necessary for the vaccination of babies and children, following a case where the parents of a one-year-old baby refused compulsory vaccinations for their child.

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Families who insist on preventing their child from receiving vaccinations will face criminal and civil liabilities.

Giving kids with ADHD room to move could boost test scores: study

When children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder get enough wiggle room, they tend to do better on tests, researchers have found.

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California reforms to cut use of foster care psych meds will cost millions

California will have to invest millions of dollars to better protect its 63,000 foster children from the excessive use of powerful psychiatric medications in a state where prescribing physicians, caregivers and the courts have long supported the drugging of as many as one in four foster teens.

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Most Preschoolers with ADHD Stay on Meds for Years

Most Preschoolers with ADHD Stay on Meds for Years

About 65% of preschool children who were diagnosed with ADHD and given stimulant drugs were still taking those drugs three and six years later, according to a study in Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. About 10% were also being prescribed an antipsychotic.

California Moves to Stop Parents From Avoiding Child Vaccinations

With Thursday’s vote to stop allowing parents to decline shots without a doctor’s permission, California legislators have taken the first step toward making vaccinations mandatory for kids before they go to school.

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ADHD in Preschoolers: Overmedicated and Undertreated

An estimated 194,000 toddlers and preschoolers (age 2-5 years) in the United States have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and about 1 in 2 of them is not receiving the recommended treatment according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yes, that is correct – about half of the young children diagnosed with ADHD are not receiving the appropriate treatment.

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ADHD Medication: Scary Facts Many Parents Don't Know

I am a therapist in private practice so I regularly have parents coming to my office saying that they have a child who has ADHD. What to do? I want to make certain that parents get all the information before making a choice regarding their treatment plan. Too often parents only hear a limited part of this complex diagnosis and its treatment options.

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Feds Pay for Drug Fraud: 92 Percent of Foster Care, Poor Kids Prescribed Antipsychotics Get Them for Unaccepted Uses

The release in late March of an alarming new report by federal investigators has confirmed in shocking new detail what has been known for years: Poor and foster care kids covered by Medicaid are being prescribed too many dangerous antipsychotic drugs at young ages for far too long -- mostly without any medical justification at all. The report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General examined in depth nearly 700 claims filed in 2011 in five of the biggest prescribing states -- California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and New York -- and discovered that two thirds of all the prescribing with these popular and costly "second generation antipsychotics" (SGAs) raised high-risk "quality of care" concerns.


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The ADHD Fallacy: It’s Time To Stop Treating Childhood as a Disease

I met Aiden in 2008 when he was seven years old. The previous year, he had moved with his family from New York to California, and the transition had been difficult. He missed his friends in his old neighborhood and his cousins who had lived nearby. When I met with Aiden’s parents, Scott and Ava, they told me Aiden had always been a handful. Even as a baby Aiden was colicky and fussy, and difficult to put down to sleep. At two years old, he was more active than most of their friends’ children. Aiden’s preschool teachers had been concerned about his disruptive, impulsive behavior.

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Thousands Of Families Demand Legal Medical Marijuana For Their Critically Ill Kids

Thousands of families of critically ill children and advocates for marijuana reform launched a national campaign Wednesday supporting the legalization of certain strains of cannabis oil that have shown therapeutic benefits.

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California lawmaker plans to revive bill tightening vaccination rules

The author of a California bill to require school children to be vaccinated for such diseases as polio and measles regardless of their parents' personal beliefs said he would revive the measure, which stalled in the legislature last week.

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More Than 1% of Preschoolers Given Psychiatric Medication

A surprisingly large number of preschool age children on Medicaid — more than 1% — are taking a psychiatric medication, a worrying finding given the lack of clinical trials on the effectiveness and side effects of the drugs in children this young.

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Kids with ADHD must squirm to learn, study says

For decades, frustrated parents and teachers have barked at fidgety children with ADHD to "Sit still and concentrate!"

 But new research shows that if you want ADHD kids to learn, you have to let them squirm. The foot-tapping, leg-swinging and chair-scooting movements of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are actually vital to how they remember information and work out complex cognitive tasks, according to a study published in an early online release of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

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Australia to Cut Benefits for Parents Who Don’t Vaccinate Kids

"The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said

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