TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM: Councilmember Sylvia Arenas
Councilmember Raul Peralez
Councilmember Magdalena Carrasco
Councilmember Pam Foley
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: September 30, 2022
Approved Date
9/30/2022
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SUBJECT: CITY INITIATIVES ROADMAP: BILL OF RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN AND
YOUTH AUDIT REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
1. Accept the Auditor’s Report and Administration Response.
2. Direct the City Manager to include in the existing Family Friendly Initiative Report to the Neighborhood Services and Education (NSE) Committee with a comprehensive work plan update, to be heard annually, in addition to the planned quarterly status reports. a. This reported work plan should include progress on the response to the audit recommendations, as well as existing child and education focused Roadmap priority items, existing Family Friendly Initiative policy items, and other relevant existing work plan items.
3. Direct the City Manager to author a Manager’s Budget Addenda early in the upcoming Budget cycle that would formalize a City Manager’s Office of Family Friendly Policy and to extend existing one-time funding to formalize a Family Friendly Policy Director position in the City Manager’s Office. This Office of Family Friendly Policy would be responsible for implementing the audit recommendations, ensuring the city upholds the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth, and fully and robustly implements the Family Friendly Initiative Work Plan.
4. Direct the City Manager to explore and report to NSE in February on options to pilot a “Children, Youth and Families Budget” that would provide clear tracking of existing funding that relates to the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth, and Family Friendly Initiative Work Plan. The report should include options to include this in the upcoming 2023-2024 Fiscal Year Annual Budget, and it should be closely modeled on Santa Clara County’s “Children’s Budget”.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 10/4/2022
FILE:
ITEM:
22-1454
3.4 CITY COUNCIL
October 4, 2022
Subject: City Initiatives Roadmap: Bill of Rights for Children and Youth Audit Report
DISCUSSION
Thank you to the City Auditor’s Office for their critical work to add and prioritize the Audit Report to their work plan. In April 2021, the City of San José adopted a revised Bill of Rights for Children and Youth (Bill of Rights) following an extensive community outreach and engagement process led by the San José Youth Commission. The revised Bill of Rights holds true to the original and includes additional crucial language to reflect the diversity and inclusion of all San José children and youth – including individuals of diverse socioeconomic and citizenship backgrounds.
The objective of the Audit Report was to review the adherence to and implementation of the Bill of Rights. The City Auditor’s findings highlight the complexity of taking inventory of City services that benefit children, youth and families, as well as their collective impact; services are housed in various City departments and employ individual performance metrics. Over the past few years, the City has made important strides in aligning this work through complimentary quality standards, logic models, and most importantly – a commitment to implementing equitable practices and solutions. Now we need to unify it.
On March 25, 2022, the Neighborhood Services and Education (NSE) Committee and Children, Seniors, and Families Committee (CSFC) held a Joint Special Meeting on Child Well-Being and the NSE Committee approved a motion which directed the City Manager to develop a Family Friendly Initiative Work Plan (Work Plan), modeled after the Gender Based Violence Response and Strategy Work Plan. The Work Plan will integrate our Family Friendly Initiatives already underway, such as the Paid Family Leave Pilot Program, Family Friendly City facilities, the Childcare Siting Policy and more. Reporting on these initiatives together – both annually and quarterly – will enable us to be more efficient in tracking progress and identifying service gaps in real time.
As part of the City Initiative Roadmap, we must continue to meet the momentum of this critical work that has been underway over the past four years as a City Council priority by also shifting structural changes in our organization. This work is deserving of a home. Through the formation of a City Manager’s Office of Family Friendly Policy, we will formalize an office to continue the implementation of Family Friendly Initiatives underway and can further uplift the critical work in the Work Plan. The formalization of the Family Friendly Policy Director will be an expansion of the existing role of staff already working to implement the Work Plan items. The Office of Family Friendly Policy is also encouraged to work together with the County of Santa Clara’s newly established Office of Children and Family Policy to ensure regional collaborative partnerships. In strategic alignment, the Children and Youth Services Master Plan will guide the City’s investments, policy priorities, programmatic alignment, and continuum of support for children and youth.
As the City continues implementing the Work Plan, it is critical for us to recognize the investments that we—as a City—are making in our children, youth, and families. Through piloting a “Children, Youth and Families Budget” as a report in the upcoming 2022-2023 Fiscal Year Annual Budget the City will be able to provide clear tracking of all existing and new funding that directly relates to implementation of the adopted Bill of Rights for Children and
CITY COUNCIL
October 4, 2022
Subject: City Initiatives Roadmap: Bill of Rights for Children and Youth Audit Report
Youth and Work Plan. This pilot should be closely modeled on Santa Clara County’s “Children’s Budget.”1 The City and our City Council has made strides in putting our children and families first and we should foreshadow these critical investments in our Annual Budget and the generational impacts that will contribute to improving the quality of life for San Jose families.
BACKGROUND
The Administration received previous direction from the NSE Committee to integrate existing City Initiative Roadmap or former Council priority items into a comprehensive “Family Friendly Initiative Work Plan” (Work Plan) which can be an effective pathway to further elevate and drive the implementation of the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth Audit Report (Audit Report) recommendations. This Work Plan should consolidate existing work underway, including:
a. Implementation of Family Friendly City policies including the City-Paid Parental Leave Pilot Program.
b. Progress on updating City facilities to meet Family Friendly standards including the construction of lactation pods and diaper changing station improvements. c. Tracking the allocation and spending plan for the $10.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for Child and Youth Services.
d. Continued development and implementation of the City’s Children and Youth Services Master Plan and tracking other relevant items on the workplan including the Child Care Siting Policy, and Education, Digital Equity, and Digital Literacy roadmap items. e. Youth services system improvements initiatives, including follow-up on the recent logic model and system improvements to youth intervention programs. f. Implementation of the recommendations from the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth Audit.
g. Ongoing work plan items to further move the City into compliance with the Bill of Rights for Children and Youth.
h. Efforts to elevate youth voice and civic engagement in City governance and decision- making.
BROWN ACT
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member’s staff.
1 https://data.sccgov.org/stories/s/Children-s-Budget-2022/p5si-n7f5/