Students need to develop strong social-emotional skills to thrive in school, career, and life. Test scores matter, but do your students have the SEL training they need to succeed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Department of Education has dedicated funds for education initiatives that support social-emotional learning programs. For information on their programs and grants, visit their Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety<\/strong><\/a>. (Discontinued. See update below.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, ASCD offers free resources<\/strong><\/a> to Support Social-Emotional Learning. These are designed to help students regulate their emotions, manage stress, cooperate with others, set and achieve goals, teach self-awareness, and build self-confidence. (Discontinued. See update below.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, here’s a great article from ITSE\/ASCD that features Trauma-Sensitive Classroom Management Strategies<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to research by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, social-emotional learning helps students to be \u201ctwice as likely to attain a college degree in early adulthood; 54% more likely to earn a high school diploma; and 46% more likely to have a full-time job at the age of 25.\u201d<\/strong>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resources above should give you a great start on providing this important training for your staff and helping your students develop these vital skills. In addition, there are many commercial programs available (CASEL, PATHS, Second Step, etc.) to assist you should your budget allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UPDATE<\/mark><\/strong>: Because SEL suddenly became controversial in the fall of 2022 (especially in Florida, Utah, and Oklahoma), ASCD discontinued their resource section on Social Emotional Learning. In addition, when Linda McMahon took over the U.S. Department of Education in 2025, one of her first acts was to close the SEL center mentioned above, deleting all resources related to SEL. So these free resources are no longer available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, ASCD did recently release this article<\/a><\/strong> that shows the relationship between SEL and bullying. In addition, Education Week recently released a special repor<\/strong>t<\/a> designed to update schools on new priorities related to SEL. It can also help counter the false narrative that SEL is some sort of covert attempt to reprogram children into social justice activists for causes like socialism, racism, and LGTBQ rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n