All right.

At 1009 a.m.

on this Tuesday, April 21st and 26th, we will call the Educational Opportunities Committee meeting to order.

Medical Clerk will please call the roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Council Member McKee Rodriguez is here virtually.

Councilmember Mungia.

Councilmember Castillo.

Chair Galvan.

Here.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

First item of the agenda's approval of the minutes of the last meeting.

Are there any corrections to the minutes?

Can I get a motion to approve?

And a second.

Thank you.

No, you're good.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Great.

All right.

We'll move to public comment.

We have one person signed up to speak.

We have Jessica Weaver from Communities and Schools.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry.

No, I'm sorry.

Oh, you're gonna put that down.

Thank you so much.

Um you got three minutes to speak.

Go ahead.

All right.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of your continued investment in youth mental health.

Uh, we are deeply grateful for the partnership with the City of San Antonio to support students and families who are experiencing traumatic events.

Through this partnership, our clinicians have become a trusted resource for school districts, particularly in moments following a handle with care call when a family may need immediate compassionate support.

While not every family requires intensive services, our shared goal is to ensure accessible, responsive supports are available when they are needed, and that school districts have a clear, reliable pathway to connect families to help.

This school year alone, we have supported 92 students, completing more than a thousand clinical sessions along with comprehensive case management for 425 family members.

I want to briefly share one example that highlights the impact of this work.

A mother of five recently fled a 12-year abusive relationship, leaving behind all of their belongings to start over in a safe home.

With extremely limited resources, the family only had a sofa bed and an inflatable mattress.

All six family members were sleeping together in the living room seeking safety but lacking stability.

Our case manager and clinician conducted immediate needs assessment, identified safe sleeping arrangements as an urgent priority.

Through community partnerships, we secured donations to in beds, full-size bed, bedding, and connected the family to clothing resources as well.

Once the beds were delivered and assembled, the children were able to sleep in their own rooms for the first time.

This intervention didn't just improve physical comfort, it provided dignity, root routine, and a meeting meaningful step forward toward emotional healing.

These were five school-age students.

School-based mental health services allow us to create what we often call a soft landing for students and families, right where children already are.

These services reduce barriers, build trust, and stabilize families before crisis escalates.

The school safety and mental health summit, although also further strengthens this work by bringing together the city, the county, region 20, and communities and schools, and other partners to align systems, share responsibility, and move forward together.

There is no separation between the work of the city and the quality of our schools.

When our schools are strong, our city is strong, and our kids benefit.

All of our schools are vital to the success of San Antonio, and we are proud to stand alongside the city and our partners in supporting their success.

And most importantly, the success of our students.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

No one has to great.

Then we'll move into item two, the overview of the Bear County Continuum of Care Project.

Go ahead.

All right, the clicker disappeared.

Do I still need that?

Or should I be able to go?

The clicker.

You just use that one.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, good morning, Council members.

Uh first, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to present to you about the Bear County Continuum of Care Project and our community-based findings, specifically those that will be a catalyst for change for many youth and families across Barrett County.

My name is Erica Crawford, Director of Systems Change and Community Impact at Metals Mental Health Policy Institute.

I'm excited to discuss the 18-month planning process that I've championed across the county with the goal of helping to improve outcomes for uh just insolved youth or youth that are at risk of involvement in the justice system.

In today's presentation, we will discuss the planning process that led to a comprehensive cross sector community-based plan aimed at improving outcomes for youth and families.

The presentation will also highlight some of the youth justice trends in the county and school discipline outcomes that ultimately impact student success.

And I will finish up with opportunities for action that can directly or indirectly impact educational outcomes for youth in San Antonio.

So before we get started, I must note that this project was supported by OJJDP's 2023 Building Local Continuum of Care Category 2 grant, and was awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S.

Department of Justice.

The append opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations that are presented today, are those of the authors and not do not necessarily reflect the Department of Justice.

All right, so now that I've gotten that off the way, I think it's uh helpful for you all to know the goal of the project was to promote positive youth development, increase prevention and diversion, as well as treatment services.

Therefore, Barrie County Juvenile Probation, Metals Mental Health Policy Institute, our Continuum of Care Anchor Council, as well as community stakeholders, including youth and families who have justice involvement, work collaboratively to develop a robust cross-sector, actionable community-based plan in order to reduce reliance on a juvenile justice system and increase the use of community-based services.

This image reflects the strategic process that we underwent throughout the 18-month process, including qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, community engagement, interviews, community convenings, youth and family surveys and listening sessions, and early implementation of the plan through cross-system strategy coordination and collaboration.

One of the most impactful ways that we engage the community was through our school and community SIM Summit, which was a two and a half day event that convened multi-sector stakeholders to engage in various activities to co-construct solutions as well as design out ways to improve outcomes of justice impacted youth and families.

An excited development of that event was the attendees expressed desire to form a network that will help us to continue to meet the needs and address different priorities that were identified at the summit.

These seven priorities, as you see on the screen, the community determined were needs that require dedicated attention and strategic investment in order to improve outcomes for youth and families who are at risk of justice involvement.

This entire process concluded with a comprehensive continual care plan, which we hope to release to the public sometime in later summer or early fall after OJJDP's approval, with finding and recommendations from our qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, and this report will include a multitude of resources that will eventually be incorporated into a youth justice portal as well as other opportunities to address gaps that were uncovered throughout this 18-month planning process.

Now I will spend some time discussing the data that led to the various findings and opportunities that we will discuss near the conclusion of this presentation.

All right, so these charts give a breakdown of youth population by race compared to justice referrals and arrests or detentions in Barra County.

And as you can see, the proportion of referrals don't align with the total population of youth demographic breakdowns in the county.

In fact, black youth, especially black males are being referred, arrested and detained at higher rates than their peers.

Another trend this work is aimed to address is referrals and offense types.

The top three offenses, which are assaults with bodily injury, family violence, and vaping are all offenses that are preventable through education and community-based intervention.

This last slide on youth justice that I will discuss before we transition on how all this relates to educational challenges and opportunities reflect the highest number of referrals to Bearer County juvenile probation is through school districts.

And as I mentioned previously, the highest rates are unfortunately for black students as compared to all other student populations.

This inverted triangle that you see represents the top reasons for disciplinary action in Bear County schools ranked by proportion of referrals related to that offense.

All right.

So now we will briefly go over school discipline trends that we uncovered and the adverse effect on student outcomes.

Okay, so this first graph shows school discipline trends of the county's top referring ISDs.

This data should not be interpreted by trying to connect population size with each district.

We purposely de-identify the districts on this slide because we have the hopes that we will have one-on-one discussions with district leaders and offer support to address these issues with evidence-based measures.

But as you know, this takes time and resources.

But we're working on it.

This slide here displays in school suspensions, out of school suspensions, and DAP or disciplinary alternative education program trends across three student types most at risk for justice involvement.

And so that first to the top left are at-risk youth youth at risk of academic failure, and then the one to my right are uh for lower socioeconomic status, and then the bottom uh graph is for uh those students receiving special education services.

This heat map reflects the referral rate by zip code, which I am sure is of interest to you relative to your own districts and constituents, and as you can see, the rates increase as you move more south on the map, which also aligns with some of the resource deserts we uncovered and future support we hope to bring to those areas.

All right, so how does this all impact students?

Well, as out-of-school suspensions increase, so does dropout rates and the chance of later convictions, and as um, and it also decreases the students' likelihood to enroll in post-secondary education.

So, to summarize, schools with community-based support can turn these trends into more positive direction through methods that decrease exclusionary discipline, but also increase individualized support for different student subpopulations, especially black youth who face system involvement at higher rates than other youth groups.

Despite some of these adverse outcomes that I presented today, divergent is still a high priority in the county, and there are many signs of progress.

So I provided a lot of data and had to do it pretty fast.

Um, but so now what?

And I'm glad that you asked because uh this is where the excitement begins.

So our COC plan, which will be released uh hopefully soon, lays out each priority that aligns with our seven action committees.

Um, but I will focus on the ones that either directly or indirectly relate to improving educational outcomes.

And so for the first priority, which is expand school-based supports, the community expressed that increasing mental health services, restorative practices, and behavioral support is a priority and needs and our needs within the K 12 system.

And so our action committee has begun identifying those needs, identifying barriers, but also strategizing on how we can effectively increase access to school-based mental health services, mentoring programs, as well as increase access to basic needs and supports for youth and families who are most in need, as well as strengthen access and partnerships with community-based providers.

So some of the immediate reflection of this work is in the capacity building work we're doing at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and also collaborating with San Antonio Area Foundation, who's also doing similar work, which involves training and technical assistance for community activists, grassroots organizations, small and medium nonprofits to better support uh justice-impacted populations.

We're also learning for best practice implementation from the San Antonio Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative, as well as strengthening partnership with entities such as communities and schools and the county's new White Cot team.

Our next priority that I will talk about is priority three, which is reducing penalties for adolescent uh behavior.

We find that youth face criminalization for normal adolescent behavior.

Just think about our own uh teenage years and how we could use that support, or if we didn't, we may have different outcomes.

Um, but the community has emphasized that the need for scalable alternatives to criminalize low-level incidences is a top priority.

And so, one of the ways that this action group is beginning to do just that is strategizing ways to replicate the Southwest ISD's promise program across districts, so to prevent and intervene through education and youth development rather than criminalizing vaping incidences.

All right, priority six, which is invest in workforce development and training.

But this is not in a traditional sense.

We recognize the need to promote workforce development for youth, and that is vital, and we commend the work, such as like at the ambassador program and um councilman woman's uh Castillo's internship program that was recently announced.

We recognize the need to promote workforce development for youth, and that is vital, and we commend the work, such as like at the ambassador program and councilman woman's uh Castillo's internship program that was recently announced, but these efforts also uh want to focus on educating the communities and professionals who serve this population.

And so this particular group has been charged with developing ongoing training that educates and supports, but also retains specialized workforce, increasing their capacity, which in turn improves the type of support these youth and families have.

And then our last action committee, the community had expressed that centering efforts on school-based diversion, system navigators, and also access to services is a uh necessary priority.

And so this group has begun to map prevention and diversion support so they can increase community and law enforcement awareness about the services available to them in order to better support youth and families in need.

All right, so I know I just spewed a lot of information with you to you all, and it all makes sense once you get that report.

But in summary, ultimately, all the work that we have done over the last uh two years, uh, concluded that no single system or entity can meet the needs of justice impacted youth or in families or those at risk.

And so um, in order for us to be effective as a community, we require cross-system partnership, individualized approaches, as well as um best pace best practices to address both crises and um sustain overall well-being.

And that is the end of my presentation.

Well, thank you so much, Eric.

I really appreciate the presentation.

Um, I really appreciate uh the work that you're doing.

Um, our committee go around.

I just wanted to, I probably should have prefaced before we began the presentations today, but talking a bit about mental health, of course, um, as it relates to the county as well as our community partnerships, uh, and even here with the city.

And so just wanted to see how we can look at some of these external factors that of course impact our students' educational opportunities and needs.

Um, would anybody like to start the questions or comments for this item?

Councilman Gill.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I think you Erica for your presentation.

I was very, very informative and some really good information out of here.

You know, I had the opportunity, I think it was you talked about slide 23.

Do you mention Southwest ISD, right?

Yes.

So I got the chance to uh actually meet with their former uh police chief, and he was telling me about that program with the vape program as a way to divert kids from going to getting the authorities involved.

And I noticed on another slide that's because the state changed um that from misdemeanor to felony, the it's not necessarily amounts was reduced, right?

They just got shifted from misdemeanors to felonies.

Yes.

And there's also been current legislation that will shift that back, which is uh a great thing, but um it's still uh a need within uh the school districts, and so what we want to do is educate or prevent them from uh utilizing vapes in the first place, and then hopefully um reduce that level of misdemeanors where those charges are now.

Yeah, I think a lot of good kids get wrapped up in that sometimes, and even if it's their first major issue, um they're getting you know things on their record that are gonna affect them negatively for a long time.

So I'm glad to see some movement on that.

I think schools should adopt something better to deal with that because it's not gonna go away.

We agree.

Um, and if you go to the slide 17.

So within the top five, I have two zip codes in my district, and then I have another one, um, 7242.

And so your assessment is based on this, it's it's primarily a lack of resources or family resources that are available in certain parts of town.

Yes, that's what we have found with the data that um based on those highest number of referrals, those areas also have uh the least amount of supports to address those issues, and so areas that there may be a high family violence uh incident, there's not enough providers in that particular area to help to address that.

Um, one of the things that we're hoping to do that I didn't discuss is to mobilize an assessment center that will allow families to come de-escalate issue situations and prevent um further arrest or deeper involvement in the system.

Um, and so that is um spearheaded by um Dr.

Jeannie Van Stotz and Bear County Juvenile Probably, and we're definitely looking at national models to be able to support that effort, but also working closely with the United Way and their family resource centers, um, and then other providers that can help to bring those services directly to the communities.

And what kind of other services are are you thinking of?

78209, which is regarded as one of our wealthier zip codes.

You know, what is something that they have or have access to that someone in 7821 may not have?

Well, we have to think about the the different families as well that may have transportation to get to services and and and some of those other zip codes they may not.

We also are finding that um mentoring opportunities, especially for these high needs uh populations are scarce, and so being able to bring more mentoring services with those that have the invested interest to support them, but also the education to support all the unique needs that that population may have.

Um we're also um notice we know that some of those school districts may not have as much resources due to funding, and so um that may also contribute to um you know the lack of resources, or as we identify resource deserts um that are shown on this map.

Um, and then um mental health services, of course.

Um there's a scarcity throughout, you know, uh the United States, but also in um Beer County is not absolved for that.

And so um some of those um areas with the darker shade um may have providers, but they're far away from um the families' access, and so just trying to mobilize those um those services so families can uh realistically obtain those services.

Absolutely.

Uh and looking at your priorities, I noticed it wasn't there was not a number two or between three and what can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, so we had seven total priorities, and so I try uh because I know I provided a lot of information.

Um I try to um only hone in on those that indirectly or directly uh relate to education, but I'm happy to share all seven of those priorities uh with you all, and then of course, um, when that report is released, you all will have the full plan, including some short uh medium and long or intermediate and long-term goals um that have been developed from those work groups, and so I can share that after today's meeting.

Thank you.

Uh and lastly, um it's very you know unfortunate to see your your point here that school arrest rates are higher for all black students compared to other student races.

When you're researching, identify some of the maybe the reasons why that is the case or um well I can give you get back to you on some of that information.

I don't have all of the root causes, but I think it definitely correlates to um opportunities to educate the community and just um uh research that has been out for decades or more about you know, the um I gotta watch what words I say uh about you don't have to watch what you say here.

But I mean I kind of I understand.

I mean, it's it's a larger point in our country that's been happening too, so um, you know, it's it's interesting to see that here in Bear County.

And I guess it's kind of a little bit tied to your the triangle here on slide 13, the violate violated local code of conduct.

And and what are some violations of that that would you say they're common?

Yeah, and I can share more exact, but things that come to top of my mind are dress code violations, and maybe something as silly as running in the hall and the wrong administrator, you know, uh flag that as a code of conduct um situation, it may be something related to truancy.

Um, but I can give a more comprehensive list of what some of those violations of code of conduct are so you can have the yeah, thank you very much.

We're good to know.

Thank you for all your work on this, and there's a lot of things for us to to pick up and do here also.

So absolutely, and I'll be excited to be able to share that report with you all.

It's a lot of rich information that can further help.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Council Mickey Rodriguez.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation, and thank you for uh everyone who who's uh here.

I heard had heard uh um a representative from communities and schools earlier speak.

Uh so thank you for all the work that you're doing.

Um I guess just piggybacking on the point that uh council member Mungia had in the question about why is it that black students are more likely to be arrested and face harsher uh disciplinary actions.

And I think uh I think back to my first year teaching 23-year-old high school math teacher and having conversations with some of my colleagues at the time, and also hearing the sentiment that some of my students had felt and uh with other teachers was um often there's um a way it's it comes down to biases and the way that people view black students and people of color and wanting to uh bring them into compliance and bring them to make them demonstrate respect in a way that matters to that teacher, uh not necessarily uh and isn't applied equally, and so viewing actions of black students as a more aggressive or as more disrespectful, even if they're equal or lesser than those of white or uh other race students.

And so I think there's a there's an action step to be taken with teachers and with uh school administrators and whatnot that I don't know um I don't I guess the I guess that the question that I want to get to is what is the action step?

What is the action step to get us to address that cultural issue, that issue of uh teachers in their own paradigms and their own views of and biases against uh black and brown students.

Thank you.

That's a good question.

You brought up a lot of points that are in the current research about that phenomenon across the United States.

I think one thing that we're doing collectively as an action network is looking at systems change theory and making sure that not only the policies and practices that we're addressing, um that we're working on relationships and also mindset.

And so it'll be a layered approach where not only are we advocating for change within these various systems, that we are uh helping professionals that are part of these systems to change their mindset on how they may approach these day-to-day um issues, whether it's in the school system, whether it's in the juvenile justice system, and we think that evidence-based approaches such as restorative practices and trauma-informed care will ultimately help to address these issues.

Um I wish it was an easy uh answer to address, but we're hoping that with these systems change efforts and using different models that are proven to elicit results that improve outcomes for youth and families, um, no matter what their background will help to move the needle, and then like I said, um, different advocates and um uh the voice of young people who've encountered these type of uh situations as they have more platforms to be able to express that.

Um, we're hoping that that will improve the outcomes as well.

And so we're using a combination of factors to hopefully address that that larger issue.

I appreciate that.

And um, I think a lot of the findings and things that you're uh that you shared today are well documented and very it it's affirming of all of the research that's that's been done, and it tells us that the problem still persists.

Uh and I'm wondering which, as a part of the planning process and the stakeholder engagement that you've done, which districts have been, I guess, most willing to school districts and school leaders have been most willing to collaborate and be a part of this effort.

Yeah, um, we find that most of them are.

We haven't done the one-on-one work just yet, but as far as the planning efforts up until this point, we've had representative from Southwest ISD, North Side, um, we've had uh East Central that's become a part of our work.

Um, I don't want to leave anyone out, and so if I don't name it, it's not that they're weren't there, but those are the districts that come to mind.

For sure.

I just wanted to, I just wanted to get the sense that this wasn't gonna be something that happened in the silo, and then the school districts weren't gonna, because this does rely rely a lot on school districts accepting the feed, accepting this information, accepting the feedback, accepting the findings and the and understanding that the action steps are gonna be theirs to take.

Absolutely.

Um, and so I just I guess any way that we can be a partner and connecting to the it has to be as it has to be at a school level.

It can't just be the superintendents and school board trustees, it has to be the administrators and teachers who also take on who take on some of this.

I wonder because communities and schools was here mentioned.

I guess are there any organizations that come to mind that are providing care in schools that are helping um address some of I guess addressing some of these outcomes locally?

Yeah, absolutely.

Up partnership is uh been a great partner in this work.

Um John Jacobs was a part of our um our action, our community, uh I'm sorry, our anchor council, and also leads the priority three, which is reducing um uh punitive penalties for adolescent behavior, and a lot of the work that they're doing with the restorative practice academy and some of the other work, um, they're working closely with districts, and so I definitely think they are one of the leaders in that work, and they're helping to support our efforts.

Um we can always do more and expand.

And so at any point, if you want to reach out to me, I can connect you to whoever uh is necessary, and as we schedule meetings and continue to work with the different school districts, um, we all can do this collectively, because like I said, it um it definitely is a community effort, and we all have to come together.

It takes a village.

I know it's cliche, but it's true.

Um, and we're we're we'll be stronger and more effective if we work closely together on this um issue rather than in silos, and so I totally agree with that.

For sure, thank you.

And I think um when I'm thinking about what our role is going to be in this, I think one of the largest powers we have at the city is is the dollar.

And I think um when I'm thinking about what our role is going to be in this, I think one of the largest powers we have at the city is is the dollar, um, and we're going to be um at some point this year allocating funding for organizations through our delegate agency process, and I think my focus is uh how can we how can we reduce and prevent crime uh through these resources and get and achieve some of our uh crime prevention goals through this uh through these dollars, and I think there's definitely a role to play in supporting the organizations that are on the ground in schools providing resources to students and their families, and so uh would love to connect you to I imagine you're already connected to our Department of Human Services, and I think maybe there's opportunities for you to provide feedback there, I think that would be uh excellent, or even as as a part of the scoring committee, that would probably be helpful.

Yeah, I definitely welcome that.

I just want to say that one of our goals was to make sure that this plan didn't just remain a plan that it moved into implementation.

Um there were changes at the federal level that um kind of thwarted our efforts as far as uh um funding the implementation piece, and so we're trying to braid together resources as much as possible to make sure that we can move forward through that phased approach and different priorities, and so um I welcome any opportunity to continue to move forward this work, a lot of work and effort um at a community um level, but also at our uh agency went into this this work, and we want to see it change, yeah.

Thank you.

Last quick last question.

I know I've taken a bit of time, um, but I'm in reading about some of the outcomes, especially as it relates to race-based outcomes.

I'm thinking about you know, roll the rolling back of our small business, our small uh minority on business initiatives and efforts and rollbacks of DEI and other race-based initiatives.

I'm wondering, do we anticipate there will be any challenges with implementing programs and solutions that improve outcomes that are race-based?

Like the short answer of that is um it depends on um who's leading that charge.

I know that uh certain um executive orders at a federal level um kind of limits some of the ways that we frame that, but um, if we address the system, we'll naturally uh be able to address those outcomes because the the youth are there, and so um we're helping all of the youth, and you know, the um the rates of different race-based um demographics are already in the system, and so if we naturally address the system, then we can still address that problem.

I I'm with you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Anyone else from the committee want to have any questions?

Council Rick?

Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for this presentation.

Um, I just have a couple of questions.

So on the priorities slide, and maybe Councilmember McGinn asked us, I missed it, but priorities too for a community hub and the continuum care or the prevention action coalition, and then the peer-based and family supports.

I didn't see detailed priority slides for those.

Yes, well, I I noticed that um my presentation was rich in detail, and so I tried to focus on those that had the most direct or indirect connections to education, but um as I mentioned, I'm very um happy to share that information with you all.

It won't be exactly how the the plan is laid out, but it'll at least give you an idea of that priority and the objectives for each of those priorities so you can be aware of what those different groups are are doing in the community.

Okay, the reason why I'm asking where my um thought process is going is we have in our hotspot um policing or our violent crime uh program funds that we're supposed to set aside for phase three, which is addressing our nonprofits doing support for the actual work, and I know my council colleagues have brought that up a lot, but it's not even just nonprofits, it's just work happening to make sure we're doing very similar to just this, like preventative work, ensuring that um we're providing the supports that you need.

I think one of the things that you said is one suspension is more likely to cause uh consistent down the road challenges for a student.

So I think those that is the type of work that we would like to support, I believe, in that phase three of that of our plan.

And I know Maria, I don't think Mania is here, but um Maria Vagas is at within um our community integrated community safety.

Thank you.

The Office of Integrated Community Safety has been working to figure out exactly what that is going to look like.

So I wonder if there's an opportunity for you all to collaborate and maybe provide some insight into parts of this, what you guys are creating that would be helpful for us in trying to provide support for.

Absolutely, we welcome that.

Our uh action committees are fully volunteer based, and um we would like to add as much support as possible, and so um definitely reach out and we can talk about next steps.

Okay, and then the other thing that I you know, this is going back to my request to how do we layer data, but when you look at that map that you show that um Councilmember Mungir brought up too on slide 17, it'd be really great to be able to see not only the this kind of data, which we can more easily collect, but again, I'll double down on like data on where services are occurring because until we start correlating that, I think we're not gonna be able to see what's being affected and how we are actually trying to help, and if we're trying to help in the right areas.

So this kind of just goes back to my request of saying, like, where could we see um if that community hub assessment center is created, where is it going to be located and make sure that we overlay that on top of this data?

Yeah, oh I'm sorry, not to please go ahead.

I'm smiling because we're in the same mindset.

We're currently working on a proposal with our data team at Metals Mental Health Policy Institute to be able to do just that.

And so we recognized all these gaps in services that were available but didn't have a uh interactive dashboard, and so we're working on creating an interactive dashboard that not only identifies referrals and um arrest and uh different um factors such as uh criminogenic risk or social determinants and health, but also uh aligning that to where the services are needed, and that way we can collectively as a community work on um targeted resources in those areas, but also strategic investment.

Um that way we can be smarter, work smarter not harder on um attaining funds, and so if a particular area shows that there's no resources around um mentoring that we can collaborate and bring those services, and then to your point about the assessment center, we're very much looking at a mobile assessment center, and that way we can bring services to the community and not expect the communities to come and seek out those services.

And so we're we're thinking and strategizing, just gotta put some money to those efforts.

But we're we're definitely trying.

So can you I don't know if it's okay for me to ask, but are you how are you guys funded right now just by the county?

So that project in particular was funded by OJ Day OJJDP, um, and Barra County was the fiduciary agent and partnered with Metals to do like the project management and the community convening.

Um, and so that particular project has since ended.

However, some of the work is still happening.

Um Bear County will now take leadership of um owning, not owning, I'm sorry, convening the action networks, but um metals is very much involved through my role, and then um another project that closely ties to that, which is our training and technical assistance um center where we're supporting different community uh activists and grassroots organizations serve these populations through their services and so and when you say the action networks, you're talking about like the the the prevention action coalition.

Yeah, those different seven uh priorities, they each have a um a committee, yeah.

It's collectively we call them the action network.

Okay, got it.

And each individual, each committee is is broken up with different members.

Yes, okay.

Thank you.

Um the only other thing I wanted to mention is on slide 15 and 16.

When we're talking about discipline data, this is actually disciplined data is so subjective.

And if you go school by school, I was trying to, I've never seen um the these reports in the even in the next slide in terms of what's labeled as disproportionate and not disproportionate.

I tried to go on TA's um website to find that, but if you could send me the backup data for this, absolutely um, but the this slide, this slide I was kind of uh wondering how was classified as incommensurate or well, my slide said disproportionate, not disproportionate.

How was that uh that that's a TEA determination?

Yes, and they don't use that exact language.

I had to tweak it to make sure that we were in line with uh executive orders.

Um, but um it basically shows the percentage for those different population groups, and that was a determination that we made collectively that it was disproportionate compared to other um other population groups.

And so I can I can send you the data set.

That that makes sense.

The thing that I was thinking about was uh from my educator lens that like the kids that got ISS that was not correlated, that was disproportionate to what action they took.

I did not recognize that this was based on the subgroup population.

Yes.

Got it.

Okay.

Okay, so the slide um right before this.

The only thing I was gonna comment on this slide is that sometimes when ISDs have really high percentages of discipline rates, they just I mean, it's very easy for a uh school to decide, hey, we're not gonna put this in the system.

And so I just want to be as someone who's been in a school leadership position, sometimes we would get referrals and be like, okay, I'm not entering this.

Um, and it's it's often just because like some of them to our point, we see that this action didn't determine that, but I just want us to be cautionary about using this to um to make determinations about if a district itself is over punishing because it might just be over-recording or under-recording on the opposite end.

So I just wanted to provide that clarity.

But um, thank you for your work.

I'm excited to see how we can provide additional supports and how we can continue to collaborate.

Thank you, Chair, for agendizing this item.

I think there's so much happening in our community and figuring out exactly how we can best support that and making sure that our municipal courts are plugged into the work that you are doing as well, um, so that we can make sure we're not uh duplicating efforts, but also providing as much comprehensive support for these kiddos.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Castile.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Erica, for the presentation and just all that you do.

Uh Rachel Tucker on our team has had an opportunity to join y'all at a couple of events that y'all have had, very informational, and she's always sharing uh the information and the research packets that you all have.

Uh, there's a lot of value and impact in what y'all are exploring.

Uh and as you mentioned, right, how can we continue to identify where we can earmark funds to support this work.

Uh, pleased to hear that at the state level that there is work to move the vaping um uh away from a felony.

I think about graffiti, right?

Uh, I had many classmates that were 18 in high school and received felonies for graffiti, and that served as a cascading effect to which many of them are currently incarcerated.

Um, so again, there's a lot of need for diversion and support uh for K through 12, and I think uh the work that you are doing helps uh the city uh I uh and county, right, uh identify how we can help mitigate uh many of these issues.

Um, in terms of the map, I I there's three zip codes that are uh within District 5 and Edgewood and Harlandale ISD.

Uh and I'm curious as well, right, if we could also see a map in terms of you know how many of justice-involved youth have a parent that's also incarcerated or both incarcerated.

I know at the local level we often talk about how we have a lot of grandparents raising grandchildren, but we don't talk about why, right?

Uh and likely it's because a parent is incarcerated.

So uh I think it'd be interesting to see what that data looks like and overlapped with justice-involved youth.

Um, and uh I'm thinking about the expanding school-based supports.

I wanted to do a plug for parenting plus.

Uh, I'm not too sure.

It's what Gina Meyer, she's a former Bear County jail employee and probation officer who's created a nonprofit now to provide parenting classes for um a parent that may be coming out of uh the Bear County jail, but also supporting youth for uh children that may have a parent that's currently incarcerated.

Uh, and she does this not just by providing uh material support, but again, she provides like pro bono classes uh in terms of making sure that parents are receiving the support they need, uh, and of course, to address any behavioral issues that there may be.

Um I'm pleased to see uh with the action to reduce preventive punitive penalties, uh the elevating the lived experience.

Uh, I've had um a conversation with a nonprofit that does justice involved work but doesn't hire individuals with felonies.

I was like, let's talk about this, right?

Uh if we're talking about organizing, we should be allowing those that are impacted to lead, and if there's paid positions, we should allow them the opportunity to earn as well.

Um, so appreciate that as one of the media opportunities for actions.

I think in terms of uh at the local level, I think there'd be value whether it's a B session or within the public safety committee, for us to receive a briefing in terms of pre-arrest diversion for youth in particular with SAPD.

Uh, when Rachel and I toured the Bear County jail, we were um it was shared with us that there's an area specific for juvenile.

So I was like, oh, 17-year-olds about to turn 18.

They're like, no, like 14, 15-year-olds uh at the Bear County jail.

Uh, and I think it it'd be helpful in terms of the policymaking process for us to understand what pre-arrest diversion currently looks like, what are alternatives, and also understanding the data in terms of uh those youth that are at the Bear County jail and a place for adults, um, why they're there and just understanding what that process looks like.

So in terms of action action network objectives, I think that'd be beneficial for us to receive a briefing on that component.

I'm also supportive of what was recommended, right?

I think in terms of when we have evaluation committees, whether it's for public safety or the Department of Human Services, that your expertise and understanding of just the what we should be doing, I think is of a lot of value in terms of how we're prioritizing the delegate delegate agency funding.

So I'd be supportive of that.

Again, I appreciate the work and the recommendations that you all have put forth.

And as you mentioned, right, a plan that we put into action.

And it's something that I am grateful that the chair agendized this item because it's a huge priority.

I've had an opportunity to speak with Judge Crushaw, and he said, hey, Terry, a lot of these violent youth violent offenders are primarily within District 5, right?

What are we doing?

How are we going to change this?

How do we address it?

So just grateful for his leadership there as well.

But appreciate the briefing, uh, all that y'all do in the stakeholders, and we're here to help uh invest and help uh you all move these recommendations into action.

So we'll just thank you so much.

No, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Anyone else have any other comments on this one?

Okay.

Um couple of quick questions I had.

Uh I support everything my colleagues have said.

I don't think I have anything too different.

The only thing I wanted to know, and of course, the report will be released soon.

So I don't want to ask many questions that are going to be about the report itself, but I did want to kind of ask uh within it, do we have uh do we identify any leads for the next steps?

I know, of course, we have the uh committees of action for each one, uh, but do we have any also like named organizations that are one doing this work and two can help us understand the level of scale maybe needed uh to support those groups to doing this work in a better way, um, whether it's in certain districts or beyond the entire city.

Yeah, and I think um definitely, yes, there are uh various organizations across the county.

Um, also uh, as I mentioned in our uh capacity building efforts, both at Metals and at San Antonio Area Foundation, we're specifically uplifting um individuals that are committed to this work, and so um there is 20 organizations or community activists across the two programs that will be able to provide direct services to this work.

Um, and then one of the great things about the TTAP Center, um, which um is at Metals, we are supporting their RFP um development, and so at the end of their time with us, they'll be eligible for funding through Bear County to be able to support um different efforts that align to our our plan.

And so we're being creative in how we can implement it in different ways, but also uplift those um activists and grassroots organizations who are already doing the work and giving them funding to be able to sustain it.

And so um we're the the short answer is yes.

Okay, that's great.

No, and thank you for the long answer too.

I appreciate it because I think it's helpful for us to understand, right?

It's not just uh we need to get these groups together to help do this work, it's also understanding well, what's their their caseload ratio currently within XISD, right?

Uh, to then understand how much do we need to invest in as a city um or county or whatever partner that we're looking at here to help provide uh resources to do that workforce training that you mentioned, or if it's to help provide any additional service that can help assist that person doing that work.

Um, just so we can see that again, that skill increases.

I think we know the work's being done in multiple places in different ways, uh, but being able to understand how we can be the best supportive and make sure those delegate agency funds or other funds go as far as they can would just be helpful and if it's in the report, great.

Otherwise, I think the kind of collaborative work will sprue that or make that happen anyway.

Yeah, and I want to quickly say is that data proposal dashboard that we're creating, we're also looking to work with LMO area community network and tap into their sync program and identify like where the referrals are and how um that alliance, and so there's an opportunity to capture that information through that process.

But right now it's proposal stage.

Uh, hopefully, we'll we'll get the funding we need to be able to move that forward.

Got it.

Well, thank you so much again for the presentation, all the information of the work you're doing.

Um, we'll move on to item number three.

Thank you, Erica.

All right, item number three is the overview update on youth mental health initiatives.

Uh, and we'll have Jessica Higgins.

Good morning, Chair and members of the educational opportunities committee.

I'm Jesse Higgins, your chief mental health officer, and I'm super excited and proud to be here today.

Um, this is my first time to present to this committee, and it's great to be here following Erica's presentation.

I think a lot of the work that we're doing uh flows right into each other.

So today we're gonna look at an overview of Metro Health's youth mental health initiatives, which currently I have broken out into these three areas of school-based mental health services, the Bear Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit, and the advocacy we do with partners.

I'm happy to present this timeline to you because a few of you have been here since the inception of this work.

Although Metro Health has a history of folding mental health and interventions and contracts into its work, this current iteration of mental health initiatives really began in 2021 out of COVID.

To address inequities that were exacerbated by COVID, the CDC released grant funding.

Metro Health included two mental health contracts in this application, and we used the Health Disparities Grant to fund school-based services.

In the spring of 2022, DHS, the San Antonio Youth Commission, and Project Worth Teen Ambassadors alongside Metro Health launched the first teen mental health survey.

The survey was completely initiated by these youth-led groups and helped to shape our policy around ARPA funding.

We launched the Office of Mental Health and Resilience in June of 2022 and worked to host community input sessions and then the RFPs for what ended up being 20 community-based youth mental health contracts funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

These contracts ran for two years and ended in 2025.

For fiscal year 24, council moved funding for the two school-based mental health contracts to the general fund.

In the spring of 2024, we launched the second Teen Mental Health Survey, where we saw slight improvements in San Antonio's teen mental health, which was encouraging.

In November of 2024, we hosted the first annual Bare Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit.

For fiscal year 26, Council allocated an additional 150,000 for school-based mental health services.

In November of last year, we hosted the second annual Bare Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit.

Presently, we have the third Teen Mental Health Survey open for response, and later this year in October, we will host the third annual Bare Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit.

As we're looking at the history, I wanted to show the summary of our ARPA funded youth mental health contracts.

In addition to these contracts, we also had two that provided diagnostic services for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and two for adult harm reduction.

We had a total of 20 contracts that provided youth mental health services through ARPA funding for a total of $15.75 million that ended last year.

Through these contracts, more than 6,000 kids were served in individual or group therapy, and of those that had four or more sessions, 52% saw a decrease in symptoms, and 44% saw an increase in well-being.

As you saw, through COVID grants, we were able to start contracts for school-based services.

These two contracts with communities and schools and the Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative are now on the general fund and got expanded last year to go into fiscal year 2026 and 2027.

Through our contract, Communities and Schools serves 100 youth impacted by traumatic experiences through counseling, case management, and basic needs in East Central, Northeast, North Side, San Antonio, South SAN, and South Side ISDs.

And I want to thank Jessica Weaver from Communities and Schools who gave us a perfect picture of how these services impact individuals, families, and the community.

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute serves as the backbone for the Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative.

Their partners are Rise Recovery, Clarity Child Guidance Center, Family Service, Endeavors, and Holvin.

These collaborative serves 550 students, district staff, and family total through all of their funding sources, through counseling, case management services, drug and alcohol intervention, psychiatry, and a youth leadership program in Edgewood, Harlandale, Judson, and San Antonio ISDs.

The landscape of school-based services will change again this summer as all ARPA funds in the community will be exhausted.

We're working with community partners in Bear County to monitor the impact of this funding ending and to enhance partnerships and create referral pathways.

Even as ARPA funding from the city has ended, we have been able to preserve the impact of the relationships built through the contracts and the needs of the community.

In 2024, we hosted the first annual Bear Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit.

This was a collaborative effort with Metro Health, Bear County, Region 20, and Communities and Schools.

At the first summit, we had over 150 people in attendance representing school districts and charter schools, nonprofits, hospitals, philanthropy, law enforcement, criminal justice, elected officials, the Texas School Safety Center, HHSC, the Office of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Secret Service.

The objectives of this summit were to understand that mental health of school-aged children is a public health priority, to strengthen school safety by supporting a comprehensive system of care which includes mental health, and to identify next steps.

The impact of this day continues to have ripple effects.

It was important for us representing the city to show the community that the safety and mental health of school-aged children is a priority for all of us, and that we all have a seat at the table.

The burden cannot only fall to districts.

One of the next steps identified was a Texas Legislature Advocacy Day, which we attended and spoke at in February of 2025.

SAPD Assistant Chief Salamay and I spoke on the ways that schools can support both physical and psychological safety to decrease the risks of threats and increase wellness.

And last year, Bear County was the lead on the second annual summit.

Again, we had over 150 attendees.

This year we brought in student voice through our plenary speaker and a student panel.

We had a policy review of the 89th legislature and looked at vaping, substance use, and suicide data as well.

Out of the summit, we heard concerns about Senate Bill 12 and House Bill 2, which I'll talk more about in a minute.

I'm excited to announce that this year, Metro Health will be hosting the third annual Bear Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit on October 30th.

The summit will continue to build on the ongoing work and momentum that we feel in the community.

We can't have safe schools without all of us working together to support students, teachers, and leadership.

And I love getting to follow Erica's presentation because restorative justice is one of the areas that we will definitely be highlighting at the next summit.

As I previously mentioned, the 89th legislature passed Senate Bill 12, which went into effect this past year on September 1st.

This bill changed how schools have to get consent from parents for health-related services.

The implication the implementation of this new law caused confusion in schools and for school-based mental health services.

By the time that we had the summit in November, school districts, counseling providers, and hospitals were already seeing changes in how children were receiving services and the health of students overall.

In January, we started collecting data from providers and hospitals, and we're able to see a decrease in utilization of school-based services and an increase in hospitalizations, both through walk-ins and emergency detentions.

A group of us have been meeting with some of our representatives to show the data and explain the issues that are being felt here locally.

The top picture in the slide is of a group from San Antonio Bear County that attended a policy summit in Austin in December.

I'm proud of this picture because the year before there were only six of us there, and through the summit, we're elevating the issues of the attendees, but also making policy issues easier to understand for all parties affected.

Another policy issue that we're working with partners on is the school safety allotment or House Bill.

After the first summit, the HE Butt Foundation came to us, Metro Health and SAPD, to better understand how local law enforcement and the fusion center work with schools to identify threats.

Through the last two years, we monitored the progress and we're happy to see that the 89th legislative session, a House Bill 2 funded the school safety allotment and allows for these funds to be used for both physical and psychological safety.

Starting in February of this year, Chief Salome and I joined district leaders, nonprofits, and policy experts in working on a blueprint for schools to understand existing funding streams, identify opportunities, build cases for investment, and navigate the systems that shape how schools are funded.

This blueprint will support district leaders, policymakers, and partners in strengthening physical and psychological safety through funding strategies, collaboration, and long-term planning.

We want to help schools build the case that healthy students mean a healthy workforce, school safety is public safety, and that the healthier students are, the safer they are.

We're very excited for this initiative to be finalized, and we'll be sure you get a copy of the blueprint when it's ready.

So for today, we want to make sure that we're all promoting the third annual teen mental health survey, which closes on May 10th.

We have over 700 responses thus far.

We're very proud of that response rate, but we know it can get even higher.

We will continue engaging with partners to understand and elevate the community's needs.

We're working with partners to strengthen referral pathways as funding erodes, and we're looking forward to October for the third annual Bear Area School Safety and Mental Health Summit.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present to you today.

It was encouraging to look back on all the ways that this work has grown and shifted thus far, and I'm here for any questions you may have.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation.

Um any questions?

Council Ruby McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

I'll just convey gratitude for now.

Thank you for all the work that you're doing, and we'll continue to do.

The high resolution flyer to each of our offices so that we can share those.

We sure will.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you for all the work, just you appreciate that.

And um I'm glad we're doing this a third time now, the annual Bear County School Safety Mental Health Summit.

That's really important and it materialized right with some actual steps at the legislature.

So I know we have a brand new committee now again on the IGR committee and our chairs right here.

So you know, I think we need to make sure that these things are top of mind for our committee when we just make sure we focus on family well-being and students and how we can support our schools.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilor Bruce Steel.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Jesse, for the presentation.

Um our team member Rachel, again, she was able to join the Bear County area safety mental health summit, the second annual, and she says she looks forward to the third, and I look forward to joining her to that as well.

Um I I appreciate, I'm grateful to see that within the general fund, communities and schools uh is now baked into the city budget.

Uh but I'm thinking about Erica's presentation in terms of those wraparound services.

Uh, is there coordination or is there opportunity with uh the schools where we're seeing a high impact that uh the mobile unit can be uh working in coordination with the recommendations of the previous presentation?

Yeah, I think there's ways that we can make sure that or even identify where we already are plugged in.

Both of these contracts are on the general fund.

And so we've got uh a combined seven partners um in all of these different districts that we're that we're trying to, but I think we can pull out and highlight where that's um happening more clearly and and see where we can improve.

Great, thank you for that.

And then uh just lastly wanted to again also highlight uh one thank rather Rebecca Flores uh for working with the youth commission.

Uh that's a big group, and uh, she's uh help lead the charge in terms of allowing our youth to facilitate conversation.

Uh what I always share is uh it's just impressive seeing how uh the youth facilitate the meetings, uh their understanding of Robert's rules and effective uh communication in terms of facilitating a meeting is always impressive, but most importantly, the ways in which uh Rebecca helps facilitate the youth dive into the weeds and propose recommendations.

So uh looking forward to the survey results uh and then uh just uh allowing our youth to let us know what their priorities and needs are.

Thank you, Jesse.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilor Court.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much for this presentation.

I remember I can't remember which presentation it was or committee, but last year or so we were talking about the challenges of um or actually the demand I should say for the number of students that were receiving counseling services on campus that were remote.

And we were saying that there was a little bit of a um like the demand was there, but we weren't able to get serve as many students as we would have liked through that, but that was the way that they preferred the most because they could take the ment like the therapist or mental health counseling call um from their computer at school.

Do we have any updates on that program?

I can I can get with um so that program would mostly be T-Chat, which is a state program.

One of the things that's really good is that TChat did also get sustained and increased funding.

Um, and so if the school um is willing to host TCHA, and and like I said, it's a state uh funded program, then it is both psychiatry and counseling that that students can receive.

And so I know that that's getting expanded.

Like that that came out of COVID, and that's really great that it's not only maintained but keeps getting more funding.

So I can um that might be actually a really good presentation to bring TCA here.

Um, and I can connect you guys to the to the right um contact there.

And who like it's state funded, but how are they connecting to local providers and maybe how we could plug in to provide additional support for that?

Just because what uh what I would hear from our school leaders is that that's they really appreciated um the program that that has been developed.

So I I didn't know it's actually state funded.

Yeah, so and that's one of the referral pathways that we're trying to make sure that every kid that's in services now that may not have services next year because the ARPA funding from the county goes away this summer, um, that that's one of those places that we would hope that they would be able to get services.

Yeah, it's um thank you.

I appreciate that.

I would be interested in that.

The other thing that I'm um thinking a lot about is like, did you guys know that you were gonna get into advocacy through this work, or did that come as a result of the kids saying we need to advocate for this because it's being uh threatened?

Uh both.

I mean, so uh one of my jobs I think is trying to keep the biggest picture in mind and the smallest most intimate relational picture in mind of like what it what it takes to access services um and to go through a mental health crisis.

And so one of the things I try to keep people aware of is where a lot of the system change has to happen.

And for mental health funding, it's really at the state level.

It's not really federal.

It's it's we do the best we can locally with philanthropy and with our dollars and things like that.

Um and Councilman Roniguez, you you talked about um you talked about the power of the dollar, which is important, but also the city has a huge power and advocacy and convening and partnerships and elevating issues.

And so through my work, just as a therapist, um thinking about like why are reimbursement rates in Texas so low?

Why, if I was in private practice, I wouldn't be able to make a living only taking insurance.

I'd have to have some private pay in there.

Um, and so I try to bring those conversations to everyone so that we understand that like state advocacy is where we have to um focus some of our energy.

Some of it's here, some of it's good partnership, some of it's building relationships, but a lot of it needs to be elevating what we feel in schools here up to state partnerships.

The panel that we had from SAISD's um superintendents commission last year was so great.

I mean, you give them a mic and you ask them a couple questions, and they're able to tell you all of the issues.

And really, they helped open my eyes a couple years ago about how school safety and like safe bathrooms and safe um like having a real active shooter drill that doesn't feel like we all know it's coming, and I mean these were things they asked for that would help them feel safer.

Um that was really helpful to me in this work, and so hearing from them is super important, making sure everyone hears from them.

I think that room is important because I think schools are paying more attention to student voice, but wanting to make sure that our law enforcement does, um, our funders, our philanthropy, I mean all these different people, um, hospitals.

I mean, I don't know that hospital administrators are getting to hear a lot from like students and how their mental health is at schools, right?

And so it kind of it's all of it.

And so um we expected that we would need to look at policy and understand state policy, and um, but then I don't think we expected how important it was gonna be and how much opportunity there would be to educate lawmakers on on kind of policies and how they're affected here.

The one thing that I think that if we look at the data for mental health um where we see mental health struggles with kids, it wouldn't look like what we saw um just a second ago with the juvenile referral rates.

And while mental health services every I mean everyone struggles with mental health at some level, and it really does not uh is not correlated to race.

Right.

Um so like so much like some of the other stuff that we see.

So then you start to wonder well, is it just because certain populations are getting the more of the support that they need and others aren't?

And so, anyways, it just makes me think that like if we could show a map of where mental health struggles exist and how the levels of support that they're going, I feel like I always go back to the same request.

But I just wanted to be able to overlay that with our poverty map because I feel like those two would not correlate like some of the other statistics that we see in our community.

So you're you're right.

Um, even when we've looked at 911 calls for mental health, they're all across the city.

The map is pretty equally, it's it's not the same heat maps that we see in other ways.

Um what we don't have, I would I don't think is like who got into outpatient service, like the continuum on a map, right?

Who had a 911 crisis that involved police?

We have that.

Um, but then who had only one, or who got into outpatient services, or or how um who got on medication and who's about students?

Do we track students at all like that?

The only thing that I could think of is through 911 data that we would track age, um, but I'm not sure that we would that we have students, and we're also very careful with districts just like Erica was talking about.

We don't want any districts to feel more called out or more highlighted than others.

Okay, I just was curious, but thank you for sharing that.

And can I ask Jessica to come up really quick?

Is that okay?

Um is she still yeah sorry to put you on the spot?

Uh I just had a quick question.

I forgot to introduce myself anyway.

Yeah.

Well, Jessica Weaver, communities and schools.

Um, I wanted to just quickly ask you like, what is if you had to identify one barrier to the growth in your work that you all do with campuses, what would it be?

It doesn't have to be one, you can name a couple, but like what are your biggest barriers?

Around mental health or around our um and around like the just the number of kids you can serve and just in general with this work.

Yeah, um, I don't see it a barrier.

I don't see it a barrier.

I see it as the best way of practicing, and it's it's really about being in person.

And so we've chosen to have a full-time staff at each campus, and that requires more funding and more opportunities to support.

Our state funding has been able to stay stabilized, but our district funding has hit been a hit, big hit.

So I that is our biggest barrier right now that we're hitting with our districts.

Um we never ask our district to pay 100%.

We come in with an investment to try to give them a cost, and they are struggling.

So that would not have been the case a couple of years ago, but that is definitely the case right now.

Um but our model is to really be on campuses, uh, and then our clinicians are a tier on top of that.

And um we don't really we've just had research from Harvard that has shown that that model has been absolutely effective over a 20-year data piece, and so um staying with the right principles is sometimes hard.

Um but right now our districts uh our biggest barrier has been the funding cuts that they're seeing right now.

Um they don't want to get rid of support services, but it's the first thing that goes when you're looking at a budget in a school system.

So we're all gonna feel that really um harshly if we're not really thinking about how to support our districts around student supports.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing that.

I'll just say the last point.

I've been uh I'm sure they've come talk to you too, but raise your hand, Texas is doing a big advocacy push for accessing funding from the Rainy Day Fund, which is massive at the state.

So I think if we would want to get behind something for our legislative um for those of you guys that are on IGR and chair for IGR, um, it would be great if uh we could get behind that their push to use some of those rainy day funds because they don't have like a specific agenda for it, but they do want the state to try to help because of all these unfunded mandates, and I think mental health would be a great place for them to put some of those dollars.

Yeah, and I I think we can better connect with raise your hand text of this.

I'm pretty I've gone to several of their events, and anything that would to Jessica's point, anything that would just give schools more funding would allow them to use other funds for for school supports.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Anyone else have any questions or comments?

Got it?

Okay.

Um, thank you again uh for the uh presentation and for the work I'll do every single day, and thank you to the partners who are here as well, who do this work day in and day out.

Um when I talk to different uh folks in ISDs, whether it's the principals, the administrators, or the superintendents, um, they also talk about um as it relates to of course different news or different things around um educational achievement in different places, uh the need for mental health resources, right?

That there's different layers of intervention that are needed for these students to be able to truly also focus on their work and be able to achieve the greatest academic success possible.

Um and of course it impacts attendance, it impacts um their focus at school, it impacts everything else for students' ability to learn and to grow.

Um and then also for the school district to be able to show that they're doing the work every single day and being able to achieve it uh what they're looking what they're required to do and expected to do, uh, not only by the state but by the community too.

And so this is one that I'm would like to know a bit more too, right?

What's I know we don't want to put anyone on the spot, so maybe it's not to be publicly, but if there's ways that we can talk about it be uh on the back end about the the number of students that we're serving through this work, and I know of course our partners do that work.

Um we have the number there, but I guess more so per school, and I understand the need each school too would be helpful.

Um if there's a wait list at those schools, if there's a staffing need at Jessica mentioned, right?

Um so that we again I think a little bit to the question I mentioned to Erica earlier about how far can our dollar go to help achieve those gaps for the schools that need it the most, um, and then of course continue to leverage our partnerships wherever we can to build out from there.

But I think as always, right?

It comes back to the kind of a conversation around scale of these programs and how we can make sure that we're um impacting the students in the best way possible.

Um I think it's a little bit similar to the Cafe College or SAAP conversation we had, understanding a bit more about how these on-site services are leading to, right?

Uh the best outcomes possible.

Um do we have any data about how I think we know it, right?

We know it in our hearts and we know it to be true that a student will likely be on campus more often, et cetera.

Uh we want to show that a bit more too that we can be as best support as possible for our schools to be helpful for me.

Um, a couple of quick questions um kind of in that vein.

Um when it comes to I assume for a lot of the uh maybe extenuating circumstances for a lot of our students who are dealing with mental health issues, um, may lead to or may stem from uh issues at home, uh issues in the community.

Um who do we reach out to for some of those?

Uh I know we have, of course, the mental health support directly, but if it's related to transportation needs or related to housing needs, or it's related to food security or even domestic violence concerns.

Um who do we reach out to the most or who are our partners there within those frameworks?

Yeah, so I um I would rely on the the partners that we have the contracts with that they have made those connections, and and I fully trust that that they have.

I mean, we have regular meetings with our partners and making sure that they're able to get people the whole family supported.

Um when we say case management and and basic needs, like that's kind of what we mean.

Um, especially for kids, we run we recognize that like you can't really help a 12-year-old who's dealing with stress, like financial stress of the family without going into that family system and helping in all of those areas.

And so the reason that these partners have these contracts and and were chosen after RFPs and things like that is because of their depth of knowledge of all the partnerships.

Yeah, and I guess the reason I asked that too, right, is uh fully trust our partners to do this work, but more so I think asking about if uh, for example, right, CIS is reaching out to DHS for support for rental assistance for the parent who maybe is struggling with evictions.

Um do we have that data to see like how often we reach out to those partnerships to then do that work that way, I think for us to understand, right, within our budgetary conversations.

Not only are we keeping people housed, period, um, in this way, or whatever is it for utilities or food security, but we're also making sure that we're supporting a kid who's having a mental health crisis, which is therefore then impacting our school and the whole cycle that we talk about here.

It's a whole system of care, right?

Correct, right?

So we can showcase that and show how far this dollar does go and how much need is there to address not only violent crime but other pieces too that we're looking at the city level.

That's what I'm trying to get to.

Um but thank you for that.

Because I think that I know these groups, of course, all the groups that we partner with are always doing this good work.

But again, I think showcasing how much we can be supportive in that way and how much these things braid together is gonna be really needed for not only this budgetary conversation this year, but in general, right?

Um, that these dollars are not just going to avoid, um, they go to really deep address deeply rooted needs here.

Um so thank you for that.

Um last thing I think with that was um do we also have any data on uh how some of the students who are impacted uh by these services are also uh working with any municipal court uh diversion programs or caseworkers.

I know for students we have the truancy uh officers on site, um, or not officers, but truancy support programs on site.

Um do we have any data that kind of shows that overlap of services there?

I and I'm thinking as we're talking about it, so because these are mental health services and technically um I mean they're they're fall under HIPAA, and so the data that we get from the partners is de-identified, of course.

And so I'm not sure how we could actually or how we would actually trace you know partnerships.

I think we could talk to the partners about how they interact with municipal court um and how they interact with, like you said, the domestic are domestic violent advocates or um DHS or or even like referring, I'm thinking to like park summer programs and things like that.

So I think we can ask that.

I'm not sure how easily we can actually map like this many students um are getting services elsewhere just because of the HIPAA part, but I can look into it.

Yeah, that'd be helpful.

I totally understand that point too, right?

And of course, we also have talking about data that schools probably have as well that maybe we can't also or we shouldn't also access because it could lead to different spotlights and we don't want to spotlight in that way.

Um but I think trying to understand that point is is what I'm trying to get to.

Um I think those are all my questions.

So thank you so much again.

Um other questions on this one.

All right.

Last item today, item number four is debriefing educational outcomes data visualization uh prototypes.

So looking at all the things we talked about all the time about how we can look at this data as well as how we can use it for our own purposes to better understand how we can do this work.

Um Alex, take it away.

This is not a final to be clear.

No, not at all.

Thank you, Chair.

Appreciate the time.

Um, and we we put this together based on feedback that we've received from from the committee, and there is not a single meeting that goes by without several of you, not just you, Councilmember Core, but several of you, talking about how um it would be helpful to be able to see this data in in different ways.

So, what we did, and if somebody can advance the slides for me, please.

Um thank you.

Um what we did was we took at the last meeting, we we talked about a couple of specific educational milestones or indicators.

Um, and the committee identified kinder readiness, third grade reading, and opportunity youth, some of these areas that we wanted to focus in a little bit more.

And so what we've done since then is work with uh a team of amazing individuals at ITSD and at all of the departments that presented some of this data to the committee previously.

And we took one or two programs, um, one or two of those data sets that you previously saw and started layering things in.

This is a very small sample of the programs that we offer and that you've been briefed on, but we wanted to provide something for the committee to see and to provide us feedback on.

There is absolutely an opportunity for us to keep layering in and adding data, but we wanted to make sure we were heading in the right direction first.

So again, this is just for your feedback.

If you can go to the next slide, we started with Kinder Readiness, this prototype.

We brought in data that the committee was briefed on from the San Antonio Public Library team, and we specifically looked for this milestone.

We specifically looked at the story time program data and the let's play program data.

So to just to remind everybody the way that this information is captured, participants, students, families that they don't necessarily sign in and provide their address or provide that kind of very specific information.

But what we did was took the number of participants at these events at the different libraries.

But just in case things look a little off in the map, we wanted to reference those exclusions on this slide as well.

So on the next slide, you start seeing the first layer that we added.

So this is the kinder readiness percentages by school district, and you can see the different shading there.

On the next slide, we started laying in that public library data.

So you start seeing where these events are taking place, the different dots range by size and the number of participants for those various events.

But again, this is by the location of the event.

And then the last layer, if you can click to the next slide, starts aggregating that a little bit more.

So you see the size of the dot varies based on the attendance by school district, not just by the location of the event itself.

So that's that's it's slightly different from the second layer, but it was an additional one that we built in there just to kind of show within that geography that we had the pre-K or yeah, kinder readiness measurement data.

What does participation at these two San Antonio Public Library programs look like?

So MOOC, do I don't know if you'd want to pause here, kind of go through the three examples first.

Any clear if you want to all the somewhat similar, so we can just well, if you move on to the next slide, please.

This is third grade reading proficiency, and we again used data sets from various public library programming that specifically work with children in school ages.

And and I just want to say these this is sample data.

Um we would definitely be able to add data and and to be more refined with it, but for now we wanted to find some programming that's that's uh more tailored towards school age children, and so that's what we used again from the public library.

Um again, it's based on the events based on where the program took place, not necessarily where the participant lives.

And then again, the exclusion.

So on the next slide, you see the the first layer again is that third grade reading by district data that we originally saw.

On the next layer on the next slide, you see again the participation by event or yes, by the participation by the event, and again, most of these are school our um libraries, but there could also be other locations where this program is is provided.

But you see that overlaid onto the third grade reading data that we had as well, and then the last layer on the last slide again combines those two.

So you can see the participation in these types of school age San Antonio public library events by those geographies, um, which are the school districts for purposes of this data.

So the third example on the next slide is um relates to opportunity youth.

And so from for this milestone, we used data from DHS and the next level center, and from workforce development and the ready to work program, and specifically isolating youth within this population or this age group set.

Um for next level, I want to I want to just kind of put out there some of the stuff that you're seeing, it's it's just a sample size.

And I should clarify for next level, we were able to get one year's worth of data.

So it's just I believe it's 2025 data.

Um, and for ready to work, actually, we have the whole data set.

So depending on whether we're heading in the right direction or not, we can start refining this in whatever way the committee would like that to be refined.

Um, but I wanted to to make sure to share that about the data.

On the next slide, this was um the map that it may look a little different as far as shading, but this was the map that Rebecca shared with us when when uh the committee received the briefing on opportunity youth to really just show the geographic distribution of this population.

So these geographic boundaries are different.

Um they're based on something the census uh uses.

They're called Pumas, and I know it's up there what that stands for, but that was the census, they're not census tracks, um, but that's the the geographic boundary that we can use to calculate this density of opportunity youth.

On the next slide, you see um the workforce development participant data.

And so for this set, we do have addresses so we can show where we're serving um youth through the ready to work program that are within that age group age group for opportunity youth.

And then the next slide shows uh the next level, the DHS participants also um we have their addresses, so you can kind of see where that how that plays out.

The next slide was just our way of trying to show all three of those in a way that you could see them all on the same slide.

Um, what what the tool could technically do right now is to click through the three different, we just didn't want to risk technology failing us here.

So we took the still slides, and this is what you could you would be able to click through the purple seeing where where the youth is living, the blue showing um ready to work, and I believe the red is the DHS data.

So that's what we've prototyped so far based on on information that you've already received and that we were able to put into the systems the different GIS systems that ITSD is working with us on.

I need to thank Beth back there because she's been the project manager that Craig assigned to us, and all of the different departments have been working with her to put these different visualizations together.

So we absolutely appreciate your feedback now.

Thank you so much, Alex.

Would anybody like to start?

Councilor Mughe.

Thank you, Alex, and thank you to Beth for working on this.

This is really important uh information.

We go back to the last slide that you just had up.

Um so you know, I also mentioned this recently.

I met with a group called Ptolemy, I think it's the name of it.

Councilman Corrus met with them.

They're really good data company that we're trying to see if we can work with because this is great, and if we added other additional layers that the county has or that the city has, we could really get a good snapshot.

Uh, because what I'm seeing on on multiple ones is the southwest side of San Antonio highlighted, which is Southwest and South Sand districts.

I also like that you did it by the Puma area because with a district as large as North Side SD, they have very different needs in that district, and some of that data could be you know, um averaged out to make the picture not look as bad as as maybe some of the areas in their district are.

Um, especially when you look at the second and third map you have up here.

That part of North Side ISD are parts where they're actually not investing bond money that was already passed to those schools.

Uh Councilman Gavon and I just wrote a letter to them advocating that they please use the money that's already been passed for those schools.

Um, because you just see that happening over and over again, right?

It's just like these are where the kids that need help the most are, and then this is where we're seeing disinvestments from school, even when they have the money to invest in buildings and and and instruction.

So this is really great.

Uh, and especially if you were to overlap the school district on top of that, I think would be really interesting and telling also.

But I like where this is going, and that's a really good way to organize the data in such a way.

Thank you.

Anybody else have any thoughts?

Feedback, opinions, epiphany's that's record.

I've got a lot, but I need a little bit of time to process too to give like specific.

Um, but I agree.

I like the opportunity youth layers, I think is what's uh closest to where we would want to be able to see like what programs kids are coming from, kids are attending, and what the overall map is.

Um, so I really like those maps.

For the I like the uh kindergarten readiness, and it's just so I mean, it's like kind of what the chair was saying earlier, where you you know these things are true, but seeing them on a map just puts them even more stark.

Like, look at the number of libraries that we have on the north side in comparison to the south side.

It's just it um, you know, slide five, it's just like it's a direct correlation to kindergarten readiness and third grade reading levels.

But you do interestingly see in the third grade readiness that our school district, you know, oftentimes our school districts get so much um someone said crap earlier, so I'm gonna say crap for their work.

But if you look at the difference between kindergarten readiness and third grade readiness, you would expect those shades to be the same.

And look at the work that our school districts are doing on the south side, those colors even out.

Like if you look at slide eight in comparison to slide five, those those colors start to look a lot more uh homogeneous, which just shows you how how much work our school districts are truly doing.

Um, and our schools overall.

But uh anywho, all that to say the I the event attendance by school district.

I was trying to figure out slide six, how we can make this more uh compelling, and these events are just these are reminding I know you said this, but this is all of a library events and all of what is the event intended in this?

For kind readiness, I believe both of those programs are just at at libraries, but I'll ask Dale, I know he's here.

It was um story time and let's play.

I think let's play might actually are they at any parks?

Yeah, so let's play can be at a school, but more often in a park.

Right.

And and this is data, you know, that we offered to this project to, you know, just for it to be to be mapped out and we appreciate that.

Yeah.

So but yes, in this case, and I can think of ways other ways this could be um shared, but yeah, this is showing like how many attended in that school district.

Yeah.

Do we and what's the smallest level of data do we have for that?

Like, do we capture school?

We we actually for these events um at the library, our practice has been for many, many years to not have any barrier.

So we just come, we count, we know that you're interested, and that's what we do.

So um that's what we're collecting at this point.

You know, there's certainly there's ways we could we could look at this differently in the future, of course.

Yeah, that's great.

But I think we can all understand there is a barrier as soon as you start asking people questions, you know, there there is a barrier for some participants.

Yeah.

Yeah, especially right now.

Um, thank you so much.

I'd be so key this so this is great.

I love the way that we're thinking about this, and I'd be so interested to see like this opportunity youth map layered on top of some of the others to be able to see what that looks like in comparison to um in comparison to some of the other statistics that we've talked about.

I'll continue to think about it and get more feedback.

Thank you for the first stab at this.

I know the first stab is sometimes daunting when you're trying something new, so appreciate that.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you.

Anything?

Great.

Um I feel very similarly about this.

I think we're going in the right direction.

I think uh I'll echo Councilman Gia's uh points about North South I think in particular, right?

I think it's very clear once he goes to the calibra or within 410.

Um the demographics completely shift um and the need completely shifts there too.

Um I think it's telling, right?

When we have certain I love the libraries are all in my district.

Um I love the Great Northwest Library.

Uh there's nothing wrong with them.

My only thing was about the access to those services outside of the area, and I think it's kind of plays into a little bit of what we see in the library events overall.

There's nothing I think I think it's clear right where the demand is for a lot of these events, and so that makes sense of where they're happening.

And I think to Dale's point, right, about what the kind of uh thought is, and I agree with that thought in particular, right, with the library being as accessible as possible to everybody.

Um I'm not gonna say but in addition to that, um, there's a little bit of like I know my community and myself included love our libraries in district six, but I also anticipate uh the particular largest circle on slide five um is the London library because of how beautiful that library is and the trees and nature around it.

And so I would imagine parents, children of all parts of our city would love to go there for events, and the uh demand increases there, so it becomes harder to track if those students are even just SISD or Alma High students, but also could be Northside, Edgewood, etc.

Who just love that library in particular?

Or similarly for mission library, other credible libraries across our city.

Um we had a conversation at council last week about a drive-thru library, right?

Um it's just interesting to kind of think about that a little bit.

I know it's difficult to get into the uh the granular of of data there.

I don't know what to do with that that piece there.

But I wonder if it's a little bit of like if we're not gonna if we don't ask for for uh information from the parent or from the student, um, which makes sense to make sure the accessibility is as easy as possible.

Are we able to then instead target the kind of recruitment for those efforts at uh different libraries to the schools nearby, right?

If we're seeing that there's difficulties um or struggles at uh X school, uh but they're however many miles away from this particular library.

Can that library do proactive outreach to the school to say, hey, we have these additional programs outside that could be helpful uh for your students to come in?

Um here's what chant station looks like, here's what resources look like for the parents to be able to get there.

So I often think about this is anecdotal, but I think about um my girlfriend's school um and the students she teaches and how much of a uh uh passionate library enthusiast she is.

Um and so she was very excited when the last bomb was opened up and she was able to go there, and she often asks the kids um and the parents, have you ever been to the library nearby?

And they would go, No.

It's a block away, but no, it just never is part of their routine.

And so finding a way to expose students a little bit too, right?

Like these are and parents too, frankly, about not only is it a library for a place for you to go and enjoy, but also there are targeted programming that can help the students' academic achievement that maybe the parent doesn't necessarily know all the time, right?

How to conduct in that way.

Um and so there's a bit of targeted resources nearby.

So anyway, I'm rambling on a little bit much on it, but I think the data is very helpful, and I think it helps us kind of make those conclusions.

Um I think there's of course always gonna be gaps in this because there's uh those barriers there that we have.

But uh I can already see thoughts for me.

Sorry, I got in my little soapbox very quickly there.

Um so thank you, Alex, and thank you to Beth and the entire team, all the departments who are doing this work.

I'm excited to see it come to full fruition.

Um I think my last actual thought on the map itself is I wonder if there's a way that we could um be able to showcase what events are happening at those particular points.

This is a lot of work, I think, on IT to be able to do that, uh, to be able to like click the one uh in the middle at Central Library and showcase what events are going on during the week, etc.

Um, what they are.

Um, and that can be for a library, for a park, etc.

As we continue to go forward with this.

Um just to kind of uh be able to understand a bit more what's exactly happening there with all the different layers there.

I don't know if it leads into one day making a publicly accessible interactive map that does the exact same thing, but that's a very future conversation.

Yeah.

Um it actually if if I remember correctly, it actually can.

When you hover over like in that section on the different geographic boundaries, it would it you could click and and it would tell you this is whatever that geography was and whatever that percentage was.

And similarly on the gray dots, it would tell you what library that was.

Um, but again, this is sample data.

Um, and so what this is telling us is that we can go back, keep refining the data, keep seeing what additional data sets we have that fit.

We'll stick with these three for now, but see what additional data sets we have, keep refining those data sets, trying to make them as much as possible apples to apples, and then keep layering things in.

Thank you so much.

Thank you again to the team who's been working so hard on this uh and taking all of our data questions and asks.

Um any other questions or comments?

All right.

Well, then at 11 47 a.m., our meeting is adjourned.