The County of Santa Clara is pleased to present its Children's Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21 of all youth-oriented programs and services.  We are providing this budget to inform our residents of the vast array of services the County offers to support our youth and some key metrics (Measures of Success) County departments are tracking with each children's well-being category .  In collaboration with community partners, the Children's Budget shows programs across the entire County that emphasize supporting the needs of our youth through four general categories of children's well-being:

Based on the FY 2020-21 Adopted Budget, the County will spend approximately $986.3 million on Children, Youth, and Family Programs. The County will receive approximately $724.7 million in funding from state, federal, and other sources for Children, Youth, and Family Programs in FY 2020-21, yielding a net cost to the County of approximately $261.6 million. To put these numbers in context, the FY 2020-21 Adopted Budget authorizes spending of $8.22 billion, which means that approximately 12.0% of total County spending is for these types of programs.

Every child safe category reflects programs that address issues of food insecurity and hunger, children living in safe and stable families, and juvenile arrests.  The estimated spending for FY 2020-21 in this category is $568 million.

Every child healthy category comprises programs that address routine access to health care, healthy lifestyle, early social emotional development, an developmental assets.   The estimated spending for FY 2020-21 in this category is $396 million.

Every child successful in learning consists of programs that address school readiness, third grade reading proficiency, and middle school math proficiency.  The estimated spending for FY 2020-21 in this category is $13 million.

Every child successful in life entails programs that address high school graduation rates, children fluent in at least two languages, and youth feel valued by the community.  The estimated spending for FY 2020-21 in this category is $9 million.

For more information, visit FY 2020-21 Children's Budget.

Measures of Success are intended to highlight metrics that the County's agencies/departments determine are core to their missions and operational service delivery. The Office of Data Oversight, Management & Evaluation (ODOME) is partnering with Agencies/Departments and the Office of Budget and Analysis to provide technical assistance and consultation in the creation, monitoring, and reporting of measures.   Below highlight two Fiscal Year 2020-2021 measures that are related to children and youth.

The Department of Child Support Services intends to increase the share of child support dollars collected of those owed for minor children on the agency caseload, a federal performance measure tracked and reported by the State of California Department of Child Support Services and a direct indicator of the Department's ability to increase collections. This number is benchmarked against the state average to compare this Department's performance against other counties in California.

In 2018, the Probation Department rolled out a pilot survey in the Juvenile Hall. This pilot led to the development of three separate surveys that cover the following operational areas: admissions and clinic; orientation, housing and safety; and programs and services.

Each survey is administered semi-annually on a rotating basis to all youth who reside in the Juvenile Hall. The 2018 survey results served as the baseline data. These surveys are quite comprehensive and as a result, only a handful of key indicators are reported below. However, all indicators are used by the Department for quality improvement internally.