Policy Recommendations

Drawn from the comprehensive report, these recommendations respond to the disparities and trends in the data. They are written for the City of San Diego and its Office of Child and Youth Success (OCYS), but many can be adopted by other cities and partners across the region. Each is sorted into one of three types: City (municipal code, funding, permitting, economic development), Community (partnerships with regional organizations), and Advocacy (change at the county, state, and federal levels). They span short-, medium-, and long-term timelines of up to four years.

How to read this page

  • City recommendations use tools the City directly controls.
  • Community recommendations rely on partnerships with regional organizations.
  • Advocacy recommendations pursue change at the county, state, or federal level.
  • Codes (e.g., CC1, ED3) match the labels used in the full report for cross-reference.

Overarching Recommendations

Cross-cutting actions for the City and OCYS that benefit child and youth wellbeing broadly.

  • #1 — Child and youth priority-based budgeting. Adopt a priority-based budgeting system to track the share of the City budget directed to children, youth, youth-serving programs, and families with young children. Children and youth are close to 30% of the City’s population — over 400,000 people. A baseline could be set and updated alongside each Youth Wellbeing Report.
  • #2 — Government agency convening. Establish a regular convening of municipally designated representatives across the region to focus on child and youth success, share resources, and coordinate investments, legislative priorities, and grant-seeking.
  • #3 — Leveraging data. Update this report periodically to link programs and policies to outcomes, and expand it with new measures such as childcare availability and affordability, child poverty, food security, parental monitoring, perceptions of safety, and social media use.
  • #4 — Support youth ambassadors. Build on the City’s Youth Commission with a youth ambassador program — potentially with Live Well San Diego’s Youth Leadership Team — so young people can identify problems and drive solutions themselves.

Education & Child Care

Informed by data on preschool enrollment, test scores, language fluency, and high school and college completion. The City permits childcare businesses, runs youth programming through Recreation Centers and Libraries, and supports employees’ childcare needs.

  • CityCC1: Continue implementing the Child Care Blueprint with partners, focusing on expanding facilities and easing the process for operators to develop and renovate them.
  • CityCC2: Consider supporting the countywide childcare ballot measure (tentatively November 2026) to raise revenue, modeled on San Francisco.
  • CityCC3: Accelerate funding of Measure H, expanding use of city-owned property for early education and out-of-school-time purposes.
  • CityED1: Expand library programming for young adults (ages 19–24) and disconnected youth.
  • CityED2: Become a formal partner in SDUSD’s Community School Initiative, a whole-child improvement strategy.
  • CityED3: Support community groups coaching immigrant students, racial minorities, and students with disabilities to narrow test-score gaps.
  • CityED4: Convene regularly with SDUSD, community colleges, and universities to share data and advance strategies together.
  • CommunityED5: Strengthen the pipeline enrolling students in community colleges and local universities.
  • AdvocacyCC4: Continue aligning with school district and early-education (Child Care Blueprint) policy priorities.

Economic Stability

Informed by data on housing stability, student homelessness, family-sustaining wages, and employment. Affordability pressures hit Hispanic, Black, immigrant, and disabled youth hardest. As a large regional employer, the City can lead through its own hiring as well as broader economic development.

  • CityEC1: Create a regular convening with the school district and community colleges to build a clear pipeline from school into City jobs paying a self-sustaining wage.
  • CityEC2: Expand the clearinghouse of youth internships in municipal government to opportunities across the region.
  • CityEC3: Provide City internship and workforce programs for neurodivergent individuals, including supervisor training (modeled on the County’s Jay’s Program).
  • CityEC4: Offer young adults and disconnected youth relevant training at libraries, including financial-literacy and entrepreneurship programs.
  • CityEC5: Allow GED or community-college credit through City employment or internships.
  • CityEC6: Evaluate the City’s expanded parental-leave policy and share findings with other San Diego employers.
  • CommunityEC7: Partner with regional employers to commit to hiring youth.
  • CommunityEC8: Work with 211, school districts, and colleges to place basic-needs coordinators connecting students to SNAP, Medi-Cal, and City jobs.
  • CommunityEC9: Analyze municipal and regional workforce needs and share wage-potential findings with students.
  • AdvocacyH1: Support AB 752 (Ávila Farías, 2025) to incorporate onsite childcare and amenities into affordable-housing projects; if not adopted statewide, pursue local strategies.
  • AdvocacyH2: Support housing for youth, such as the County’s Housing Our Youth (HOY) program.
  • AdvocacyEC10: Support expansion of corps programs (Youth Corps, California Corps) that provide valuable training.

Health Insurance

Informed by data on health insurance access. Coverage reached nearly 97% in 2023, but barriers remain for immigrant populations. Medi-Cal access falls largely to the County and State, but the City’s Fire and EMS services connect to the healthcare system.

  • CityHI1: Provide small businesses with health-resource navigation as part of the annual business-license process.
  • CommunityHI2: Support building a diverse healthcare workforce that can better serve patients of color.
  • AdvocacyHI3: Partner with 211, the County, and others to streamline access to entitlement programs, including Medi-Cal.

Physical Health

Informed by data on sleep, physical activity, and substance use. Sleep and physical activity have declined, possibly linked to social media use; vaping has risen. The City can use parks, recreation, and joint-use spaces to get youth active.

  • CityPH1: Leverage youth voices to create community gardens at parks and joint-use spaces, with youth helping to manage them.
  • CityPH2: Provide added support for community gardens, including permitting assistance and grants to cover water bills.
  • CityPH3: Engage youth ambassadors so recreation-center programming reflects youth priorities for physical activity.
  • CityPH4: Expand the Parks After Dark program, working with the County and others to scale the model regionally.
  • CommunityPH5: Support schools in enforcing vaping bans and removing flavored products from stores.
  • CommunityPH6: Use Safe Streets for All grant funding to make routes to school safer, supporting the Child & Teen Friendly City initiative.

Mental Health

Informed by data on mental health and suicidal ideation. Females, LGBTQ+, multiracial, and Black students report poorer mental health. The City can connect youth to programs and tailor communications with youth ambassadors and community experts.

  • CityMH1: Engage youth ambassadors to tailor communications about mental-health services and programs.
  • CityMH2: Participate in the American Academy of Pediatrics Strategic Behavioral Health Initiative convenings.
  • CityMH3: Share Youth Wellbeing data in the Live Well K-12 briefings.
  • CityMH4: Strengthen County partnerships for child and youth behavioral health and join the County’s Optimal Care Pathway for young children through transition-aged youth.
  • CommunityMH5: Collect and analyze data on social media use and the efficacy of smartphone bans.
  • CommunityMH6: Partner with school districts to map mental-health, wellness, and belonging programs and consider offering some at Recreation Centers.
  • AdvocacyMH7: Be an active partner in future planning and long-term funding for First 5 San Diego.

Victimization

Informed by data on bullying, teen dating violence, and witnessed neighborhood violence. Much of this work sits outside the City’s purview, but the City can support youth who engage with its programs.

  • CityVI1: Connect youth engaging with the City — through employment, internships, or Library and Parks programming — with information about supportive services.
  • CommunityVI2: Share victimization data broadly with community-based organizations to inform program design.
  • AdvocacyVI3: Pursue proactive litigation against social media companies whose methods addict children, and advocate statewide for enabling legislation, with the County and other partners.

Risky Behaviors

Informed by data on drinking, vaping, and distracted driving. The City can help youth feel safe through physical infrastructure and safe ways to get around the region.

  • CityRB1: Continue the City Planning Department’s Child & Teen Friendly City initiative and invest in community spaces and infrastructure so youth feel safe in their neighborhoods.
  • CommunityRB2: Support student resource groups at schools and community colleges.
  • AdvocacyRB3: Help envision future funding for First 5 Commission San Diego, currently funded by declining tobacco sales.
  • AdvocacyRB4: Support continuing Youth Opportunity Passes that fund free transit for youth under 26.
Last updated: June 2026 Read the full report (PDF)

About this report

These recommendations are drawn from the comprehensive report’s Policy Recommendations section. They are a starting point for the City of San Diego and OCYS to consider as they advance their Strategic Plan and Positive Youth Development Framework. For data sources and methods, see the Methodology page.

Want an analysis or web report like this one for your organization? Reach out to research@thinkpic.org.

Produced by the Policy & Innovation Center and funded by the San Diego Foundation, the Prebys Foundation, and the City of San Diego.