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Something shifted in San Antonio’s teenagers between 2022 and 2024. And we have available data because we asked them.
According to data from the 2024 City of San Antonio’s annual Teen Mental Health Survey, reports of self-harm fell by more than half, from 26% of teens to 11%. Suicidal ideation dropped from 28% to 14%. The survey, designed by youth for youth, reflects the experiences of real kids in real neighborhoods ages 12-19 across all 10 city council districts, and shows progress hard-won through investment, attention, tough questions, and the willingness to act in the best interests of our young people.
That kind of insight is only possible when we are willing — and able — to ask the right questions through avenues like the 2026 Teen Mental Health Survey, created through a collaboration between the San Antonio Youth Commission and Project Worth Teen Ambassadors, which is currently accepting responses through an extended deadline of Sunday, May 10.
Just as we are learning what works, a new Texas law is making it harder to ask the necessary questions to drive positive action for our youth.
According to the Teen Mental Health Survey, 62% of San Antonio teens say school negatively impacts their mental health and only 14% report having a trusted adult at school they can talk to.
Senate Bill 12 (SB 12), passed by the Texas Legislature during its 89th session and effective since September 2025, was framed by its supporters as a “parental bill of rights.”
In practice, the law requires written parental consent each time a school conducts any activity that collects information about a student’s emotional well-being during the school day. That includes formal surveys, informal mood check-ins, and even when asking a student to pick an emoji to represent how they are feeling.
Sixteen percent of San Antonio teens say they have no one comfortable to talk to about their mental health — and school-based data collection just got much harder under state law.
The 2024 survey results also remind us of who is most at risk. LGBTQ+ youth are more than three times as likely to report self-harm and suicidal ideation as their straight peers. Transgender youth face even more acute challenges with 50% reporting suicidal ideation, 47% reporting self-harm and 72% saying school itself has a negative impact on their mental health. These are the same young people whose support systems at school such as counseling, affirming spaces, and access to trusted adults, face the most uncertainty under SB 12.
And yet, amid all of this, teens are also telling us something hopeful: they are resilient. They are turning to friends, music, community, and creativity to cope. Only 2% say nothing helps, which means 98% are still finding a way to cope by turning to friends, music, community and creativity.
Teens deserve adults and institutions that meet them where they are.
That is why the 2026 Teen Mental Health Survey matters. While SB 12 constrains what information schools can formally collect, the City of San Antonio’s survey, conducted outside school walls on a voluntary basis through the SASpeakUp platform, remains one of the few ways to hear directly from young people.
We are asking every San Antonio teen, ages 12 to 19, to take a few minutes to complete the survey. Tell us how you are doing. Tell us what is hard. Tell us what helps.
If you are a parent, educator or caring adult, please share the survey and encourage young people to participate.
And to community leaders and elected officials: this data is only as powerful as the action we take on it. The progress we saw from 2022 to 2024 did not happen by accident — it happened because the City of San Antonio, UP Partnership and community partners treated youth mental health as a priority worth funding and measuring. That commitment cannot stall.
We can legally meet the requirements of SB 12 while still finding community-based and city-supported ways to survey young people who may be struggling.
Written by Tabitha De La Rosa, UP Leaders of Tomorrow Intergenerational Advisory Board and San Antonio Youth Commission Board member; Audrey Samora, UP Leader of Tomorrow and San Antonio Youth Commission Board member; and Dr. Cathy Jones, Chief Executive Officer, UP Partnership.
