San Antonio’s young people are often talked about as the future, but they are also living in the present, and decisions being made right now are shaping their lives in real time. School districts across San Antonio are facing declining enrollment, campus closures, budget cuts, and a rising fear tied to immigration enforcement that are limiting opportunities and destabilizing student success.

Supporting Youth Mental Health

The City of San Antonio’s 2024 Teen Mental Health Survey identified school itself as a top mental health stressor for teens. At the same time, across San Antonio’s school districts, elective courses in the areas of arts, wellness, and creative expression, are among the first to be cut when budgets tighten. These courses are not extras, but rather essential for many students’ well-being.

Twenty youth leaders from across San Antonio, through the UP Leaders of Tomorrow fellowship, have developed policy recommendations to support youth mental health, bring college and career access into every neighborhood, and ensure every student knows their rights. They call on local school boards to develop solutions that will continue to allow funding for elective courses focused on creative expression, arts, and wellness.

Civic Engagement and Empowerment

The youth leaders also recommend implementing annual Know Your Rights training for all middle and high school students, delivered in partnership with community organizations and integrated into existing student support programming. This is not a political recommendation, but rather an equity-centered one that aims to empower entire families and communities.

To give students a more formal role in decision-making spaces, the youth leaders propose two structural changes: designing youth advisory bodies as authentic structures for shared governance and implementing at least one meaningful civic engagement initiative per school year.

Original reporting: San Antonio Report — read the source article.