OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Education Opportunities Committee Meeting on Opportunity Youth Programs - February 6, 2026

Council Committees — Friday, February 6, 2026
BodySan Antonio, Texas
SessionCouncil Committees
DateFriday, February 6, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:39:29

Transcript — Verbatim
0:01

All right, ready to go.

0:03

Time is now 10.03 a.m.

0:05

on February 6, 2026, and the Education Opportunities Committee meeting is called to order.

0:10

Madam Clerk, please call the role.

0:12

Councilmember Corps.

0:13

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

0:15

Councilmember Mungia.

0:17

President.

0:17

Councilmember Castillo.

0:19

Chair Galvon.

0:20

Here.

0:20

Chair, we have quorum.

0:21

Thank you so much.

0:22

All right, first item agenda is approval of minutes.

0:24

Are there any corrections to the minutes?

0:26

Motion to approve.

0:28

All right, all in favor say aye.

0:30

Aye.

0:30

Aye.

0:31

Any opposed, any abstentions, moving on.

0:33

All right.

0:34

Um, we don't have any members of the public decided to speak, right?

0:39

Great.

0:40

Um then item number two will be our first item to go through, which is the opportunity youth programs uh by DHS.

0:47

Rebecca Flores to the podium.

0:50

Good morning.

0:52

Morning.

0:52

I had to write notes because if I didn't, I'll be here for like three hours and just talk and talk and talk because I can talk about this forever in my sleep.

1:01

So good morning, um, chair and council members.

1:05

Good morning, Chair and I think I'm taller than I am.

1:08

Good morning, Chair and Council members.

1:09

I'm Rebecca Flores, and I probably oversee the Children and Youth Success Team with the Department of Human Services.

1:16

Um, we operate 10 city programs and four city commissions, and our programming runs from uh six weeks all the way to 24 years of age.

1:26

Um, today we will be focusing on the city's investments to support opportunity youth.

1:32

Um, we will share some data on what has been guiding our investments, the strategies we have adopted to better support youth, and highlight some of the work we are doing in partnership with national networks.

1:46

And although the committee knows um the definition of an opportunity youth, for those listening who may not, the definition defines an opportunity youth as someone between the ages of 16 to 24 years for 24 years of age who is not working and not in school, so they have to be both not working nor in school.

2:05

Um we used to call them disengaged youth, and in fact, when you look at the census data, they still use that term.

2:11

But those of us who work with children and youth, we know words matter.

2:14

So basically, we've tried to reframe the narrative from a deficit-based model to one of potential.

2:22

And to quote the Aspen Institute's Forum for Community Solutions, the term opportunity youth highlights the belief that investing in a group of young adults offers a significant opportunity for the nation to boost the economy, reduce poverty, and build a stronger workforce.

2:42

For those who want to know a bit of history of how we started to invest in opportunity youth, it goes back to 2017, and the former presiding judge of our municipal court, John Bull.

2:52

He made a comment to Andrew Moore, who is the director of youth and young adult connections for the National League of Cities about always seeing youth around the age of 19 in his courts who were neither working nor enrolled in school.

3:04

Andy replied, those are opportunity youth.

3:07

And that one little comment started us down this path when we realized that one, except for one investment in a gang prevention program.

3:16

At that time, the city's investments uh centered around those uh youth investments centered around those who are enrolled in school.

3:23

There essentially was nothing for those who had already been disconnected, and two, as council was revisiting the youth curfew ordinance and began discussions on how to decriminalize it.

3:35

We realized our courts and law enforcement had very few asset-based options available to them.

3:41

We also discovered that San Antonio community had around 36,000 opportunity youth, around 13 percent of the youth between the ages of 16 or 24.

3:51

Historically, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have had disconnection rates between 13 and 15 percent, which is slightly higher than the state's average, and Texas has a higher average of disconnected youth compared to the nation.

4:05

And since we do compete with our neighbors up north, I wanted to note that we have more than double the amount of disconnected youth compared to Austin.

4:13

Austin has seven percent, and again, we're about 13, 14 percent.

4:17

And you can see from this map that all the city's disconnection rate averages around 13 percent.

4:22

It is not evenly distributed across the city.

4:26

Although it is hard to make out on the screen, we do have some zip codes in San Antonio with disconnection rates in the low 20 percent.

4:34

And after hearing from other communities who have decreased their percentage of opportunity youth, the city created the next level youth opportunity center, which opened in 2019.

4:45

The center is located in Council District One in the Frank Garrett Multi-service center and the 07 zip code.

4:52

The city, communities and schools, and goodwill San Antonio all have staff at the center.

5:00

One thing we pride ourselves on is that when youth come to the center, they do not know who's Goodwill, who's a city, or who is communities in school.

5:06

They are all next level.

5:10

And this slide shows kind of representation of kind of the duties of each of our organizations at next level.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Education███████████████████████████████████████39%
Parks and Recreation███████████████15%
Youth Programs██████████████14%
Workforce Development█████████9%
Public Safety███████7%
Procedural███3%
Mental Health Awareness███3%
Municipal Court███3%
Data Analysis███3%
Summary of Proceedings

Education Opportunities Committee Meeting on Opportunity Youth Programs - February 6, 2026

The Education Opportunities Committee met on February 6, 2026, from 10:03 a.m. to 11:42 a.m. to hear briefings from the Department of Human Services, Municipal Courts, Parks and Recreation, and the Ready to Work program on their respective efforts to support opportunity youth (ages 16–24 who are not working and not in school). The committee discussed program outcomes, data collection, collaboration, and potential budget priorities.

Consent Calendar

  • The committee approved the minutes from the previous meeting without corrections.

Discussion Items

Opportunity Youth Programs by DHS (Rebecca Flores)

  • Rebecca Flores, overseeing the Children and Youth Success Team, presented on the city's investments in opportunity youth. She defined an opportunity youth as someone aged 16–24 who is not working and not in school, noting the term was changed from "disengaged youth" to emphasize potential.
  • San Antonio has approximately 36,000 opportunity youth (about 13% of those aged 16–24), with some zip codes having disconnection rates in the low 20%.
  • The Next Level Youth Opportunity Center opened in 2019 in Council District 1, serving youth with high barriers: more than half lack a high school credential, almost a quarter dropped out before 9th grade, about 15% have been justice-involved, 13% are experiencing homelessness, and 16% are or were in foster care.
  • In FY25, Next Level served about 555 youth. Success metrics include re-enrolling in high school, obtaining a high school equivalency, entering post-secondary/vocational training, or entering the military. The program's outcomes exceed national averages for re-engagement centers.
  • The city also funds three delegate agency programs (Healy Murphy, Seton Home, YWCA) and leads the San Antonio Opportunity Youth Collaborative with 40 nonprofits, developing shared performance metrics for delegate agency funding.
  • Flores noted that foundations often do not fund city government directly, limiting expansion options. The city is exploring pass-through arrangements with nonprofits.

Juvenile Services by Municipal Courts (Katie Kepler)

  • Katie Kepler, court manager over the juvenile section, described the court's juvenile services, including the youth diversion program (started January 2025) and teen court.
  • The youth diversion program allows cases to be dismissed upon agreement; 79% of closed cases have been completed successfully. Teen court had a 77% successful completion rate for closed cases in the previous year.
  • The Truancy Prevention and Intervention Program has 11 case managers working with 11 public ISDs and 5 charter schools, serving students from pre-K through age 19 (and up to age 21 for dropouts).
  • A re-engagement docket focuses on students who have dropped out. This year, about 900 students were invited to court; 209 have been confirmed re-enrolled in an educational program.
  • Kepler shared that the court lacks additional funding for its programs and relies on an adopted budget and a truancy grant from the Office of the Governor (approx. $355,000).

Parks and Recreation Youth Programs (Sarah Sharp)

  • Sarah Sharp, recreation manager, presented on Parks and Recreation's youth services. The department recently developed a Youth Services Master Plan after community engagement.
  • Parks has 30 community centers (20 full-service), now open at 10 a.m. instead of 2 p.m., with over 352,000 youth and teen visits last fiscal year. The centers are concentrated in central San Antonio, leaving gaps on the outskirts.
  • Programming includes STEM (CPurch underwater robotics, Zero Robotics with MIT/NASA), arts (The Gallery art show), outdoor adventure (Aim to Float kayaking/archery), and sports. Out-of-school camps cost $3/day; summer youth program fees are on a sliding scale, with 73% of participants qualifying for a reduced fee of $25 for the first child for 8 weeks.
  • Parks hires lifeguards starting at age 16; last year 255 of 285 lifeguards were aged 16–24. Parks is partnering with Next Level to recruit youth for these jobs.
  • Sharp highlighted internal collaboration with DHS, the Library, and Metro Health (the "Big Four") for multi-generational programming.

Ready to Work Program (Michael Sindon)

  • Michael Sindon, administrator with the Workforce Development Office, briefed on Ready to Work's efforts for young adults (18–24). Participants must be 18+, a San Antonio resident, and have income less than 250% of federal poverty guidelines.
  • Young adults (18–24) make up 25% of all intake/enrollment/training completers and 24% of quality job placements. Their training completion rate is 64% and job placement rate is 58%.
  • Top industries of interest for this age group are health care (56%), transportation, and IT/cyber. Top training occupations are medical assistant and nursing assistant.
  • Outreach efforts include the City Senior Summit (collaboration with Municipal Court), resource fairs at high schools, and a new pilot with SAWORKS targeting five low-socioeconomic-status high schools.
  • The Apprenticeship Building America grant ($2.9 million, sunsetting June 2026) supports pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs. To date, 238 young adults have gone through pre-apprenticeship training, with 78% male and top occupations in IT/cyber (61%), construction trades, and utilities.
  • Registered apprenticeship programs have been created with 17 local employers, including UTSA College of Education, JR Plumbing, and the Office of Historic Preservation.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No members of the public signed up to speak.

Key Outcomes

  • Committee members expressed strong support for the programs, with Councilmember McKee Rodriguez emphasizing the importance of investing in opportunity youth as a preventive measure.
  • Councilmember Castillo noted that public safety improvements start with these programs and expressed interest in expanding Next Level and park services in his district (District 4), which lacks a community center.
  • Councilmember Mungia highlighted the need for better data collection and mapping of program participants by zip code to ensure resources target the highest-need areas.
  • Councilmember Kaur requested data on participants' school districts and waitlists for Parks programming, and asked about re-engagement docket outcomes by grade level.
  • Councilmember Galvan (Chair) proposed inviting school district superintendents to a future meeting to better align city services with school needs and to coordinate data sharing.
  • No official action was taken; the briefings were for discussion only.

Meeting Transcript

All right, ready to go. Time is now 10.03 a.m. on February 6, 2026, and the Education Opportunities Committee meeting is called to order. Madam Clerk, please call the role. Councilmember Corps. Councilmember McKee Rodriguez. Councilmember Mungia. President. Councilmember Castillo. Chair Galvon. Here. Chair, we have quorum. Thank you so much. All right, first item agenda is approval of minutes. Are there any corrections to the minutes? Motion to approve. All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, any abstentions, moving on. All right. Um, we don't have any members of the public decided to speak, right? Great. Um then item number two will be our first item to go through, which is the opportunity youth programs uh by DHS. Rebecca Flores to the podium. Good morning. Morning. I had to write notes because if I didn't, I'll be here for like three hours and just talk and talk and talk because I can talk about this forever in my sleep. So good morning, um, chair and council members. Good morning, Chair and I think I'm taller than I am. Good morning, Chair and Council members. I'm Rebecca Flores, and I probably oversee the Children and Youth Success Team with the Department of Human Services. Um, we operate 10 city programs and four city commissions, and our programming runs from uh six weeks all the way to 24 years of age. Um, today we will be focusing on the city's investments to support opportunity youth. Um, we will share some data on what has been guiding our investments, the strategies we have adopted to better support youth, and highlight some of the work we are doing in partnership with national networks. And although the committee knows um the definition of an opportunity youth, for those listening who may not, the definition defines an opportunity youth as someone between the ages of 16 to 24 years for 24 years of age who is not working and not in school, so they have to be both not working nor in school. Um we used to call them disengaged youth, and in fact, when you look at the census data, they still use that term. But those of us who work with children and youth, we know words matter. So basically, we've tried to reframe the narrative from a deficit-based model to one of potential. And to quote the Aspen Institute's Forum for Community Solutions, the term opportunity youth highlights the belief that investing in a group of young adults offers a significant opportunity for the nation to boost the economy, reduce poverty, and build a stronger workforce. For those who want to know a bit of history of how we started to invest in opportunity youth, it goes back to 2017, and the former presiding judge of our municipal court, John Bull. He made a comment to Andrew Moore, who is the director of youth and young adult connections for the National League of Cities about always seeing youth around the age of 19 in his courts who were neither working nor enrolled in school. Andy replied, those are opportunity youth. And that one little comment started us down this path when we realized that one, except for one investment in a gang prevention program. At that time, the city's investments uh centered around those uh youth investments centered around those who are enrolled in school. There essentially was nothing for those who had already been disconnected, and two, as council was revisiting the youth curfew ordinance and began discussions on how to decriminalize it. We realized our courts and law enforcement had very few asset-based options available to them. We also discovered that San Antonio community had around 36,000 opportunity youth, around 13 percent of the youth between the ages of 16 or 24. Historically, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have had disconnection rates between 13 and 15 percent, which is slightly higher than the state's average, and Texas has a higher average of disconnected youth compared to the nation. And since we do compete with our neighbors up north, I wanted to note that we have more than double the amount of disconnected youth compared to Austin.

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