County releases annual Children's Data Book and expands children—s budget data collection

Santa Clara County officials and the nonprofit Kids in Common presented the 2025 Children—s Data Book on June 24 and outlined work to centralize programmatic and budget data for county-funded children's services.

The presentation and discussion focused on measures of child well-being, racial and ethnic disparities, and efforts to build a public-facing children's budget dashboard to show county investments. Sarah Duffy of the Office of Children and Families Policy and Dana Bunnett and Joy Murrieta, co-directors of Kids in Common, described trends in housing instability, food insecurity and social-emotional health among children in the county.

Why it matters: the data book and the children's budget are intended to align spending decisions with outcomes the board prioritizes, including school readiness, youth mental health and family stability. Officials said the resources should help the county identify funding gaps and overlapping services.

Dana Bunnett said the data book uses county, state and federal sources and local education data to track outcomes and drive discussion about investments. The presentation highlighted that about 21% of the county population are children ages 0–17 and that nearly 29% of children received public assistance in the last fiscal year.

Presenters flagged several areas of concern. Bunnett said the count of children eligible for McKinney-Vento services approximately doubled between 2021 and 2024 and cited the end of eviction protections as a contributing factor. On food, she noted that households between about 185% and 300% of the federal poverty level are at risk for food insecurity and that rates vary by race and ethnicity: “56% of our Black families, 57% of our Latina families, and 11% of white, and 13% of Asian families are facing food insecurity,” Bunnett said.

The presentation also summarized results from the California Healthy Kids Survey: 34% of students reported prolonged sadness or hopelessness and 15% reported seriously considering suicide in the past year; Bunnett said the data show particularly high needs among LGBTQ+ and transgender students.

On the children's budget work, staff from the Office of Children and Families Policy described a pilot to collect program-level budget and service data from county departments. As of June 23, staff reported 64 program-level responses and said departments were finalizing additional submissions due June 30. The office said it plans to analyze submissions and produce narratives and dashboard visuals for the FY 2025–26 children's budget.

Supervisor Susan Ellenberg and other board members said they want the county to move from reporting to recommending policy or budget shifts that target the most serious gaps. Ellenberg said she wants future materials to show whether current investments are moving the needle on priority outcomes and where funds should be reallocated.

The committee voted to receive the data book and the children's budget status update. The motion carried with recorded affirmative votes by Vice Chairperson Ellenberg and Chairperson Young.

County staff said they will return with further analysis and dashboard visuals in subsequent updates; they also noted that the children's agenda and local partners will help coordinate responses to the needs identified in the data book.