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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-01 City School Liaison Committee Agenda Packet City Schools Liaison Committee Staff Report From: City Manager Report Type: REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS Lead Department: City Manager Meeting Date: September 1, 2026 Report #:2608-6692 TITLE Receive and Discuss the 2026 Findings Report on Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto Prepared by The Jed Foundation, and Discuss Next Steps – CEQA: Not a Project RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the City Schools Liaison Committee receive and discuss the 2026 Findings Report on Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto Prepared by The Jed Foundation (JED) and discuss next steps. BACKGROUND In September 2025, the City of Palo Alto engaged with The Jed Foundation (JED), a nationally recognized suicide prevention organization, to help with Palo Alto’s future efforts related to youth mental health including postvention support, strengthening prevention efforts, elevating youth voice, increasing awareness, and building community skills through training . Key deliverables include: 1. A comprehensive findings report of youth mental health in Palo Alto, including challenges, progress, and next steps. 2. Mental health trainings for clinicians and practitioners, and community members. 3. A roadmap to establish a Youth Task Force. 4. A postvention guide to improve responses to suicide and reduce the risk of suicide contagion. 5. A review of communication efforts. The scope of work was created after feedback from the April 2025 City Schools Liaison Committee meeting and subsequent discussions with JED. The contract was approved by City Council on September 29, 20251 with the intention of being a 24-month engagement through September 30, 2027. ANALYSIS To date, JED has provided Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM)2 training on lethal means reduction to clinicians, mental health professionals, emergency responders, and community partners. JED also hosted workshops / trainings for youth, educators, parents, staff on topics such as ”You Can Help,”” It’s Okay to Say Suicide,” and ”Creating an Inclusive Community of Care” in the spring and summer . The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) also separately hosted workshops with JED in the spring. As training courses are planned and introduced, the session information is posted on the City’s JED webpage at: www.paloalto.gov/jed. In addition to the trainings, one of the first deliverables JED provided is their Findings Report3 (Attachment A). It is the result of a community-wide review of suicide prevention and postvention efforts in Palo Alto. JED reviewed City efforts as well as efforts by other organizations beyond the City of Palo Alto. The report presents JED’s independent evaluation findings, including strengths and opportunities for the whole Palo Alto community in addressing youth mental health. The strengths and areas of opportunity transcend individual organizations and span many subject matters, reinforcing the importance of community partnerships and collaboration to strengthen support for Palo Alto youth. The task JED sought to cover through this analysis was to conduct a gap analysis of the current programs and services for youth mental health support in Palo Alto. The y evaluated services offered by age, accessibility of services, supports for specific demographic groups, availability of types of mental health support services, and more. Their recommendations include evidence- based programs and interventions for suicide prevention in communities and reflect themes gathered through stakeholder engagement throughout the Palo Alto community . JED describes the Findings Report as the start of a community conversation. The report provides a list of JED’s recommendations as a list of possible actions where the City and its partners will need to decide which actions to pursue. As a toolkit of potential actions, it is not intended to imply that all actions be taken nor only by the City. The City Schools Liaison Committee is the start of this conversation. It is a first opportunity after report publication for 1 September 29, 2025 City Council meeting, Item #12. Link: https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?meetingTemplateId=16240 2 CALM is a practical intervention to increase the time and distance between individuals at risk of suicide and the most common and lethal methods of suicide. It is the oldest and most widely used training on lethal means safety and teaches why means matter. CALM equips individuals with tools to intervene effectively with those at risk for suicide both upstream–before a crisis hits–as well as in times of crisis. More information can be found here: https://sprc.org/bpr-programs/counseling-on-access-to-lethal-means-calm/ 3 The JED Findings Report is also available online at www.paloalto.gov/jed the City and community partners, including PAUSD, to review existing efforts together and to work together on opportunities. In initial staff-to-staff conversations with PAUSD staff and Project Safety Net (PSN), there are many existing efforts that align with JED’s recommendation themes. Attachment B includes a summary of current efforts in PAUSD, the City and PSN in the five recommendation themes identified by JED in the Executive Summary. Those five (5) recommendation themes include: 1. Policies, Procedures, and Protocols 2. Education, Outreach, and Training 3. Collaboration and Messaging 4. Reducing Access to Lethal Means (one of JED’s thematic domains) 5. Address Root Causes and Culture Change Additionally, JED provided some recommendations related to the other six (6) thematic domains of JED’s comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. Those domains are: - Fostering Life Skills - Promote Connectedness and Positive Culture - Recognize and Respond to Signs of Distress - Reduce Barriers to Help Seeking - Ensure Access to Effective Mental Health Care - Establish Systems of Crisis Management The information in Attachment B centers on the five (5) recommendation themes described in the Executive Summary. This is a good starting place for Committee discussion as it provides the opportunity to build on existing efforts. Next Steps This initial Committee discussion of the Findings Report continues the community efforts to address and support youth mental health. Collaboratively this discussion begins the work to think through which recommendations can be accomplished and in what timeframe (short-, medium-, and long-term). The report leads to consideration of policy direction by the Palo Alto City Council in coordination with PAUSD, PSN, and other community partners. JED encourages clearly written goals with actionable objectives and specific timelines and that the goals should be ranked and available resources utilized to promote a unified citywide response. To keep a pulse on citywide need, JED references the benefit of an annual community survey related to youth mental health to determine areas of improvement or newly identified areas of concern. Staff has begun work with JED and stakeholders on the Postvention Guide through a smaller stakeholder discussion and a broader community discussion on August 11. The postvention guide discussion is looking at the current postvention supports and systems. JED will incorporate feedback and create a codesigned and customized postvention guide to improve responses to loss by suicide (and other unexpected loss) and to reduce the likelihood that othe r individuals will die by suicide following a loss. Further next steps from the Findings Report will be followed up on per the Committee discussion. FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT Some of the recommendations within the recommendation themes and JED thematic domains require significant resources by different agencies in Palo Alto. JED encourages the City and partners to set short-, medium-, and long-term strategic goals in supporting youth mental health in order to balance community-wide resources. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT JED’s Findings Report findings are the result of many community stakeholder interviews and a review of national, state, and local data. Specifically, JED reviewed, analyzed, and synthesized quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources (e.g., archival and publicly available national, state, and local data, youth focus groups, stakeholder listening sessions, results from Palo Alto Unified School District’s Panorama student 2024-2025 survey, JED’s Community-Based Organization Baseline Assessment, and a review of relevant documents and reports. JED conducted a total of 10 in-person and 12 virtual listening sessions led by Dr. Katie Hurley, Dr. Kurt Michael, Kiana Davis, and Whitney Yoder at JED . Cumulatively, these sessions included 74 community members from 22 stakeholder groups including nonprofit partners, youth organizations, behavioral health service providers, local universities, county behavioral health services, City staff (including first responders), City Council, and Palo Alto residents. JED also conducted three (3) in-person and four (4) virtual youth focus groups for Palo Alto teens aged 13-17 and young adults aged 18-30. The seven (7) focus groups included a total of 53 teens and young adults. All of these engagements were critical for the information in the Findings Report. These relationships will continue to be leveraged for the other efforts within the JED contract scope. Thus far, the late summer engagements (CALM workshop, Community workshop on Postvention Guide and the It‘s Okay to Say Suicide workshop) had a total of 72 participants. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW Not a project. ATTACHMENTS Attachment A: JED Findings Report and Cover Letter Attachment B: PAUSD, City, and PSN Current Efforts Related to JED Recommendation Themes APPROVED BY: Ed Shikada, City Manager August 20, 2026 RE: Cover Letter for JED Findings Report The City of Palo Alto engaged with the Jed Foundation (JED), a nationally recognized suicide prevention organization, to help with Palo Alto’s future efforts related to youth mental health including to conduct a community-wide review of suicide prevention and postvention efforts in Palo Alto. JED reviewed City efforts as well as efforts by other organizations beyond the City of Palo Alto. This report presents JED’s independent evaluation findings, including strengths and opportunities for the whole Palo Alto community in addressing youth mental health. The strengths and areas of opportunity transcend individual organizations and span many subject matters, reinforcing the importance of community partnerships and collaboration to strengthen support for Palo Alto youth. The report’s findings are informed by research and conclude that Palo Alto is well positioned to build upon strengths for a comprehensive approach to youth suicide prevention and postvention. The findings are the result of many community stakeholder interviews and a review of national, state, and local data. The executive summary provides a list of JED’s recommendations as a list of possible actions where the City will need to decide which actions to pursue. As a toolkit of potential actions, it is not intended to imply that all actions be taken immediately or only by the City. As a next step, the report will lead to consideration of policy direction by the Palo Alto City Council in coordination with the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and Project Safety Net (PSN). JED encourages clearly written goals with actionable objectives and specific timelines and that the goals should be ranked and available resources utilized to promote a unified citywide response. To keep a pulse on citywide need, JED references the benefit of an annual community survey related to youth mental health to determine areas of improvement or newly identified areas of concern. Attachment A - Cover Letter and JED Findings Report An immediate next step will be JED’s presentation of the findings report at the September 1 City Schools Liaison Committee meeting at 7p.m. at 25 Churchill Ave. While a lot of work is already underway in the community, addressing many of the recommendations in the report will require priority setting, resources, and consideration of roles among multiple parties, including PSN, PAUSD, the City, families, youth groups, and community-based organizations. JED observed that all these parties want to work collaboratively to build a stronger mental health safety net in Palo Alto. Beyond review of the findings report as a starting place for discussion on actionable goals and objectives, the next phase of this effort will include the development of a postvention guide. The guide will provide a community-focused protocol for responding to a loss by suicide. The recent or upcoming series of broader public engagement sessions are: - August 11 - Community Postvention (Response to Suicide Loss) Conversation, Mitchell Park Community Center, 6 p.m. - August 12 - It’s OK to Say Suicide Workshop, Rinconada Library, 6 p.m. - CALM Trainings for practitioners and first responders (in August and September) The ongoing work with JED and these community conversations continue to reinforce commitment to supporting Palo Alto youth and community mental health. For details about upcoming workshops and the City’s work with JED, visit www.PaloAlto.gov/JED. Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto i Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto: Challenges, Progress, and Next Steps A Detailed Findings Report Prepared by The Jed Foundation (JED) for the City of Palo Alto June 30, 2026 ® Table of Contents 01 Executive Summary 07 Purpose and Scope 09 Methodology 09 Analyses of National, State, and County Data 10 Palo Alto Unified School District Panorama Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Student Competency and Well-Being Measures for Grades 6-12 10 JED Community-Based Organization Baseline Assessment 10 Youth Focus Groups 11 Community Stakeholder Listening Sessions 11 Documents and Reports Reviewed 12 Current Overview 13 National, State, and County Trends in Suicide Deaths 15 Schools 17 Thematic Feedback 18 Youth 24 Adult stakeholders 30 Systems Gap Analysis 31 Interpretive Summary 35 Recommendations 35 Foster Life Skills 35 Promote Connectedness and Positive Culture 36 Recognize and Respond to Signs of Distress 36 Reduce Barriers to Help-Seeking 37 Ensure Access to Effective Mental Health Care 37 Establish Systems of Crisis Management 38 Reduce Access to Lethal Means 39 Systems & Governance 40 Implementation Considerations 40 Limitations and Future Directions 41 Appendices 42 Appendix A 43 Appendix B 47 Appendix C 51 Appendix D 52 Appendix E 53 Appendix F 55 References Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 1 Executive Summary The Jed Foundation (JED), a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults, and the City of Palo Alto entered into a partnership on September 29, 2025 to advise on suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention planning for youth and young adults living in Palo Alto. Phase one of the project included an assessment and gap analysis to assist Palo Alto in identifying strengths and areas of opportunity to improve its citywide mental health response plans. Suicide by pedestrian–train collision in Palo Alto has received sustained national and local media coverage since at least 2009. The problem persists and remains deeply traumatizing, particularly given its public nature and repeated incidents near local high schools. Local experts, including Dr. Shashank Joshi, have also raised longstanding concerns about extensive media attention and detailed reporting of methods and locations, which may increase the risk of subsequent suicides (also known as suicide contagion). Many factors contribute to suicide, including limited access to effective and suicide-focused mental health care, ready access to common and lethal means of suicide, insufficient culturally responsive interventions, intense academic pressure, and broader systemic barriers to basic needs such as rest, sleep, and recreation. Despite these challenges, one theme emerged consistently across listening sessions that JED staff conducted with community members: a strong, shared commitment to healing and to strengthening coordinated, citywide prevention efforts. “My brother is in 5th grade. He already has friends experiencing suicidal ideation.” - Palo Alto Youth Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 2 Strengths and areas of opportunity emerged during the assessment phase, and the City of Palo Alto is well positioned to build on these strengths to develop comprehensive mental health policies and procedures as well as prevention and postvention response plans. Areas of strength include a motivated community with an abundance of resources, local expertise in suicide prevention, support from Stanford Medical School, student engagement, and City Council’s and Palo Alto School District Board of Trustees’ support for meeting the mental health needs of youth and young adults. People across age groups in this community are willing to lend their time, expertise, and resources to improve mental health support for youth and young adults. When a crisis occurs, the community is quick to mobilize and offer grief support, pathways to care, and community connection. Community groups are motivated to collaborate and work together to pool resources and work with local schools throughout the school year to get to know the students better and increase awareness of available resources. Areas for improvement were also identified, including a need for better communication and coordination among local resources, as coordination is often reactive instead of proactive. Youth and adults alike named intense academic achievement and performance pressures, even beyond school, as top sources of stress in their daily lives and as barriers to positive mental health. Youth focus group participants noted a lack of trust in adults, as well as feeling misunderstood by adults. While these are significant mental health barriers, given the many strengths and resources of the community, the City of Palo Alto is in a direct position to improve citywide mental health support for youth and young adults. High level recommendations include, but are not limited to: Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 3 Policies, Procedures, and Protocols ■Develop and implement a comprehensive, citywide framework for suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention that integrates into existing mental health services and crisis response procedures. ■Strengthen Project Safety Net (PSN) resource mobilization efforts by building clear communication channels and implementing systematic, coordinated postvention efforts. ■Establish clear, consistent response protocols for identifying and supporting youth at risk for suicide and mental health conditions. ■Codify these comprehensive approaches into a published document to be curated and maintained by community stakeholders. Model the published document after published guidelines, such as the STAR Postvention Manual and the Higher Education Mental Health Alliance (HEMHA) Postvention Guide. ■Establish clear, consistent response protocols for identifying and supporting at-risk youth and community members during acute and longer term periods in the aftermath of a suicide loss. ■Develop a coordinated, interagency communication plan, both internal and public-facing (when appropriate), that follows safe reporting guidelines. ■Convene a postvention community task force annually, at a minimum, to update and revise the written postvention and crisis plans and guidelines. ■Identify and appoint a “postvention lead” for the City of Palo Alto to help coordinate and deploy an organized response across the systems that serve youth and young adults (schools, nonprofits, mental health organizations, hospitals, and clinics). Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 4 Education and Training ■Provide annual mental health training for first responders, community members, youth and young adults, and clinicians, with a focus on populations at risk of suicide and mental health conditions. ■Provide annual Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) training. ■Provide annual training on trauma-informed and culturally sensitive care for school mental health staff, teachers, and school administrators, as well as mental health organizations, faith leaders and other community members. ■Hold communitywide training sessions to educate community members on the postvention guide and protocols. Collaboration and Messaging ■Facilitate collaboration between schools and community organizations to prevent bullying, hate, and toxic competition within the community and promote a community of care. ■Elevate and support the work of other student-led mental health groups to reach youth throughout the city. ■Improve attendance at city-sponsored mental health events by using multiple communication channels, including social media, to reach youth and young adults. ■Develop citywide messaging to reduce stigma and promote help-seeking behaviors. ■Collaborate with local media to ensure safe messaging to prevent suicide contagion. Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 5 Reducing Access to Lethal Means ■Promote suicide-focused care models that address the full spectrum of the most common methods of attempts and deaths at the individual level, including the deployment of interventions vetted on the Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Best Practice Registry, such as Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) and Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM). ■Create grade separation at all railroad crossings in Palo Alto. ■Limit pedestrian access to all railroad crossings and strengthen real-time intervention to reduce the risk of suicide at these locations. ■Reduce entry points to railroad crossings through extended high-security fencing beyond the right of way to reduce the number of places where people can enter the tracks, making the area safer for everyone. ■Install track-intrusion deterrents (e.g., anti-trespass panels) at all railroad crossings. ■Deploy advanced surveillance and intrusion alert systems in coordination with Caltrain. ■Trained security personnel stationed at high-risk rail crossings on empathetic engagement, using evidence-informed strategies (e.g., Be Sensitive, Be Brave). ■Trained community volunteers who can provide a visible, supportive presence at rail crossings, particularly during school hours near adjacent campuses. ■Conduct annual educational sessions across the community about reducing access to the full spectrum of highly lethal and dangerous means beyond railroad crossings. Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 6 Address Root Causes and Culture Change ■Hire a social worker (MSW) as a Director of Youth Wellness for the City of Palo Alto to provide case management, assist with referral pathways, lead annual mental health survey data collection, develop and implement programming specific to life skills and mental health for youth, and lead caregiver education opportunities to address culture change within the parent and caregiver population. ■Create a youth-led taskforce to promote mental health and culture change and advise the City Council on the ongoing needs of youth in the community. ■Use third spaces within the community (e.g., teen centers, libraries, etc.) to provide support by partnering with other community organizations like The Q Corner, Kara - Grief Support, and allcove Palo Alto. Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 7 Purpose and Scope In response to ongoing risk of youth suicide, The Jed Foundation (JED) partnered with the City of Palo Alto to advance a coordinated public health approach that centers youth voice, strengthens prevention and postvention, and supports community well-being. On April 1, 2025, The City Schools Liaison Committee discussed a possible partnership with The Jed Foundation (JED). The Committee recommended the following: “Refer The Jed Foundation proposal and further refine the scope with stakeholders to the City Council for Council discussion and potential direction and for continued collaboration with the School District.” On September 29, 2025, City Council approved a contract for JED to provide technical assistance, evaluation, and support for youth and young adult mental health programs for the City of Palo Alto over a two year period. Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 8 The scope of the project includes the following goals: ■Postvention Support …Establish coordinated, trauma- informed postvention supports and safe messaging to reduce suicide contagion and strengthen community healing following suicide loss ■Strengthen Prevention Efforts …Identify gaps, risk patterns, and evidence-based interventions to improve youth mental health supports and reduce access to lethal means citywide ■Facilitate Youth Engagement …Elevate youth voice through structured engagement and data collection to inform city policies, programs, and prevention strategies ■Citywide Campaign & Communications …Improve reach, clarity, and usability of mental health communications and resources to increase awareness, help- seeking, and access ■Training …Build community capacity through targeted trainings that increase mental health literacy, reduce stigma, and strengthen early intervention skills The work will be carried out in phases, with the following deliverables expected (final dates are subject to change): 1. Comprehensive Findings Report: An assessment of postvention & prevention efforts to identify gaps, risks, and opportunities to strengthen citywide suicide prevention, especially for youth. (Estimated to be complete June 30, 2026) 2. Training Series: Two in-person Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) training workshops; three in- person mental health workshops; three virtual mental health workshops. (Series estimated to be completed by September 28, 2026) 3. Youth Task Force Roadmap: One roadmap to guide the structure, priorities, and early activities of the City’s Youth Task Force. (Estimated to begin September 30, 2026) 4. Postvention Guide and Crisis Policy Review: A guide to improve responses to suicide and other unexpected deaths and reduce the risk of suicide contagion. (Estimated to be complete November 30, 2026) 5. Communications and Website Review: A review of the City’s communication efforts to ensure youth mental health resources are clear and accessible for the community. (Estimated to be complete March 26, 2027.) Youth Mental Health in Palo Alto 9 Methodology This section provides a description of the data sources, published reports, engagement strategies (interviews, focus groups, surveys, document review, environmental scans), participant groups, and analytic approach used to inform the findings. To develop this findings report and inform the recommendations presented throughout, JED reviewed, analyzed, and synthesized quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources. These included archival and publicly available national, state, and local data, youth focus groups, stakeholder listening sessions, results from Palo Alto Unified School District’s Panorama student 2024-2025 survey, JED’s Community-Based Organization Baseline Assessment, and a review of relevant documents and reports. Together, these sources provided a comprehensive foundation for the findings and recommendations presented in this report. Analyses of National, State, and County Data JED consultants conducted a comprehensive review and analysis of available nonidentifiable (aggregate) archival datasets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Wide- Ranging Online Data for Epidemiological Research (WONDER) and the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s Data Dashboard. CDC WONDER is available to public health professionals, researchers, and the public at large with the goal of providing access to a wide array of public health data. Data were accessed from CDC WONDER to assess and compare national (U.S.) vs. state (California) vs. county (Santa Clara Co) multi-year patterns of suicide rates and mechanisms of suicide among individuals aged 10-24 from 2018-2024 (CDC data from 2025 are not yet available). Aggregate data from the publicly available Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s Data Dashboard were reviewed to assess suicide mortality patterns among individuals aged 10-24 in Santa Clara County from 2018-2025. Variables examined from the dashboard included the number of suicide deaths, cause (mechanism) of suicide death, and location of death. Data were analyzed to examine county-level trends in suicide mortality and then compared to national, state, and county-level trends from CDC WONDER. Consistent with CDC’s reporting guidance for public health mortality data, cells containing counts of nine or fewer deaths were not reported to reduce the risk of potential identification of individuals and to protect confidentiality in small populations.