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One thing shifted in San Antonio’s youngsters between 2022 and 2024. And we now have accessible knowledge as a result of we requested them.
In accordance with knowledge from the 2024 Metropolis of San Antonio’s annual Teen Psychological Well being Survey, reviews of self-harm fell by greater than half, from 26% of teenagers to 11%. Suicidal ideation dropped from 28% to 14%. The survey, designed by youth for youth, displays the experiences of actual children in actual neighborhoods ages 12-19 throughout all 10 metropolis council districts, and reveals progress hard-won via funding, consideration, powerful questions, and the willingness to behave in the very best pursuits of our younger folks.
That sort of perception is simply potential once we are prepared — and in a position — to ask the precise questions via avenues just like the 2026 Teen Psychological Well being Survey, created via a collaboration between the San Antonio Youth Fee and Undertaking Price Teen Ambassadors, which is at the moment accepting responses via an prolonged deadline of Sunday, Could 10.
Simply as we’re studying what works, a brand new Texas legislation is making it tougher to ask the mandatory inquiries to drive optimistic motion for our youth.
In accordance with the Teen Psychological Well being Survey, 62% of San Antonio teenagers say college negatively impacts their psychological well being and solely 14% report having a trusted grownup in school they’ll speak to.
Senate Invoice 12 (SB 12), handed by the Texas Legislature throughout its 89th session and efficient since September 2025, was framed by its supporters as a “parental invoice of rights.”
In follow, the legislation requires written parental consent every time a college conducts any exercise that collects details about a pupil’s emotional well-being through the college day. That features formal surveys, casual temper check-ins, and even when asking a pupil to select an emoji to signify how they’re feeling.
Sixteen % of San Antonio teenagers say they’ve nobody comfy to speak to about their psychological well being — and school-based knowledge assortment simply obtained a lot tougher beneath state legislation.
The 2024 survey outcomes additionally remind us of who’s most in danger. LGBTQ+ youth are greater than 3 times as prone to report self-harm and suicidal ideation as their straight friends. Transgender youth face much more acute challenges with 50% reporting suicidal ideation, 47% reporting self-harm and 72% saying college itself has a unfavourable affect on their psychological well being. These are the identical younger folks whose help techniques in school reminiscent of counseling, affirming areas, and entry to trusted adults, face probably the most uncertainty beneath SB 12.
And but, amid all of this, teenagers are additionally telling us one thing hopeful: they’re resilient. They’re turning to associates, music, neighborhood, and creativity to manage. Solely 2% say nothing helps, which implies 98% are nonetheless discovering a option to cope by turning to associates, music, neighborhood and creativity.
Teenagers deserve adults and establishments that meet them the place they’re.
That’s the reason the 2026 Teen Psychological Well being Survey issues. Whereas SB 12 constrains what data faculties can formally accumulate, the Metropolis of San Antonio’s survey, performed outdoors college partitions on a voluntary foundation via the SASpeakUp platform, stays one of many few methods to listen to instantly from younger folks.
We’re asking each San Antonio teen, ages 12 to 19, to take a couple of minutes to finish the survey. Inform us how you’re doing. Inform us what is tough. Inform us what helps.
If you’re a mother or father, educator or caring grownup, please share the survey and encourage younger folks to take part.
And to neighborhood leaders and elected officers: this knowledge is simply as highly effective because the motion we tackle it. The progress we noticed from 2022 to 2024 didn’t occur by chance — it occurred as a result of the Metropolis of San Antonio, UP Partnership and neighborhood companions handled youth psychological well being as a precedence price funding and measuring. That dedication can not stall.
We will legally meet the necessities of SB 12 whereas nonetheless discovering community-based and city-supported methods to survey younger individuals who could also be struggling.
Written by Tabitha De La Rosa, UP Leaders of Tomorrow Intergenerational Advisory Board and San Antonio Youth Fee Board member; Audrey Samora, UP Chief of Tomorrow and San Antonio Youth Fee Board member; and Dr. Cathy Jones, Chief Govt Officer, UP Partnership.
