Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Justices Refuse To Wade Into Indiana's Fight Over Transgender Bathrooms
The Hill: Supreme Court Won’t Review School Transgender Bathroom Policies
The Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling allowing transgender students in Indiana to access school restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity Tuesday. The justices in a brief order denied a request from a central Indiana school district to hear the case, which centers around a now-teenage transgender boy, identified in court documents as A.C., who was barred from using the boys restrooms at his former middle school. (Migdon and Schonfeld, 1/16)
PBS NewsHour: Trans Youth ‘Terrified’ Of What Louisiana’s New Health Care Ban Will Mean
For the last two years, Koen has routinely self-administered weekly testosterone injections without a second thought. During that time, the trans 17-year-old said his self-image and school and family life has drastically improved. His fear of needles, too, has faded. ... At the start of the year, though, a greater worry emerged. A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect on Jan. 1 prohibiting puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-reaffirming surgery. Now, Koen isn’t sure he could continue his hormone treatment. (Chavez, 1/16)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
Politico: Newsom Vows Veto For California Youth Tackle Football Ban
Gov. Gavin Newsom extinguished an effort to ban youth tackle football in California on Tuesday, vowing to veto a measure that was gaining support among Democrats but emerging as a new front in the culture wars. Newsom, in a statement shared exclusively with POLITICO, said he would not sign proposed first-in-the-nation legislation to ban the sport for children 12 and under because of concerns about head injuries. “I am deeply concerned about the health and safety of our young athletes, but an outright ban is not the answer,” Newsom said. (He, Bluth and Cadelago, 1/16)
The Colorado Sun: Colorado Teens Are Learning To Take 911 Calls In Understaffed El Paso County
One of the first lessons Scott Brettell teaches his high school students is the importance of being last. The last person to stay with someone through their last moments — even if only over the phone. (Breunlin, 1/17)
CBS News: Colorado Agency Releases Plan To Improve Child Behavioral Health Access
Kelly Causey is the deputy commissioner of the BHA. "We can't just assume that they are mini-adults, and they experience our systems in that same way," Causey said. Working with several other state agencies, she says they've identified more than 100 action items to make immediate improvements. They include things like developing an early childhood mental health consultation program, enhancing school-based mental healthcare and a renewed focus on building a workforce. (Morfitt, 1/16)
KFF Health News: ‘I’m Not Safe Here’: Schools Ignore Federal Rules On Restraint And Seclusion
Photos show blood splattered across a small bare-walled room in a North Carolina school where a second grader repeatedly punched himself in the face in the fall of 2019, according to the child’s mom. His mother, Michelle Staten, said her son, who has autism and other conditions, reacted as many children with disabilities would when he was confined to the seclusion room at Buckhorn Creek Elementary. “I still feel a lot of guilt about it as a parent,” said Staten, who sent the photos to the federal government in a 2022 complaint letter. “My child was traumatized.” (Clasen-Kelly, 1/17)
WMFE: Lawmakers Propose School Elopement Safeguards For Kids With Special Needs
Two Florida lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill that would put extra safeguards in place for students with special needs at risk of running away from school, also referred to as elopement or wandering. Autistic students are nearly four times as likely as their nonautistic peers to try to leave school unattended. That’s according to the National Autism Association. (Prieur, 1/16)
CBS News: Colorado Father Urges Lawmakers To Limit Sale Of Food Preservative Being Used In Suicides
A Colorado father, driven by grief, is pushing to make Colorado among the first states in the country to regulate the sale of sodium nitrate. The preservative, used to cure meat, is deadly in its concentrated form, which is widely available online and in some sporting goods stores. Bruce Brown's son is among a growing number of people who have used it to end their lives. ... The 17-year-old suffered from long-term COVID and it exacted a toll, not only on his physical health but his mental health too. (Boyd, 1/16)
Bridge Michigan: Michigan Disbands Racial Equity Group As Tension Mounts Over Opioid Money
An advisory group formed to help Michigan tackle high rates of opioid overdoses in communities of color has been disbanded by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration, leading to hard feelings among some members who say their work is being buried. The Whitmer administration is “trying to…silence in a systematic way the voices of the Racial Equity Workgroup,” said Native American activist Banashee “Joe” Cadreau, a workgroup member. “For two years, we put our blood, sweat, tears, thoughts, time, to …. (come) up with these recommendations.” (Erb and French, 1/16)
Modern Healthcare: Kansas City, Fort Worth’s Efforts To Become Innovation Hubs
Two cities are trying to become digital health hubs and create their own Silicon Valley. Economic development leaders in Kansas City, Missouri, and Fort Worth, Texas, want to foster an environment that will attract digital health entrepreneurs and investors, adding their municipalities to the list of cities building healthcare tech ecosystems. (Perna, 1/16)
On the gun violence epidemic —
The Hill: Colorado Club Q Shooter Charged With 50 Federal Hate Crimes
The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022 intends to plead guilty to 74 federal counts, including 50 federal hate crimes, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations, according to court documents filed in a U.S. District Court in Colorado. (Nazzaro, 1/16)
NPR: Anonymous Tip Lines In Schools Prevent Some Gun Violence, Study Finds
"If you see something, say something." ...A concept embraced by the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, started by the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. ... A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics Wednesday, evaluated the tip line as it was used by one southeastern state — North Carolina — to see how successful it was at catching firearm-related threats. Researchers found there were more than 18,000 tips submitted during the four years studied, from 2019 to 2023. "What we found is that 10% of tips contain reference to a firearm." (Chatterjee, 1/17)
