Sunday, June 18, 2017

Solano [County] grand jury offers report on food trucks, juvenile hall

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County grand jury released three reports Friday about three diverse topics: the education rights of homeless youth, the juvenile hall and the environmental health services department’s oversight of food trucks.
Education rights of homeless youth
The report recommended local school districts and the Solano County Office of Education find more effective ways of identifying homeless students.
The grand jury also stated that the efforts local schools make to identify homeless students would be improved if teachers were given intensive training in identifying and reporting homeless students.
The report also recommended that the Solano County Office of Education and six of the seven school districts in the county share with each other their best practices in providing transportation for their homeless students.
Juvenile hall
The grand jury recommended the managers at the juvenile hall finish updating their policies and procedures manual. The revised manual is currently set to be completed in 2018.
The grand jury recommended that several counselor vacancies be filled and that the juvenile hall reopen its library, which is currently closed.
The report also recommended that juvenile hall managers and Probation Department officials develop a policy that covers how transgender youth are dealt with in the facility.
Oversight of food trucks
The grand jury stated that there need to be more inspections of food facilities and those inspections need added scrutiny. The report stated the Department of Resource Management has gaps in how inspections are conducted in the county and that inspection forms could be modified to better compile and track information about violations.
The county’s nine employees who inspect more than 1,500 public food facilities, including food trucks, need to make sure they comply with state laws and county regulations, according to the grand jury.
Lastly, the county’s website needs to be fixed so that the portal for online filing of complaints about food-service businesses is available to the public, according to the report.
June 17, 2017
Fairfield Daily Republic
By Jess Sullivan


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