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School Leaders and Administrators

SEL School Leaders Header.png

School Leaders and Administrators: Welcome to Social Emotional Learning

Principals and school leadership teams play an important role in fostering the culture and climate of their schools. Intentionally or not, school leaders indicate their values and priorities through their interactions with staff, students, and families. Modeling by school leaders is, therefore, a critical part of creating a positive school environment and supporting staff in building SEL skills and mindsets. Principals can “lead from the center” by embodying SEL in their daily interactions.

Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Arizona SEL Competencies

The Arizona Social Emotional Learning Competencies use CASEL's five core competencies that describe social and emotional learning in practice. By using the integrated framework, the five core competencies can be taught in many ways across many settings.

Visit our SEL Competencies page to learn more about the five core competencies and integrated framework.

Arizona SEL Competencies and Framework

 

CASEL Guide to Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning

As school leaders, your role is critical to a schoolwide integration of SEL that promotes social, emotional, and academic growth and fosters equitable, caring, and motivating learning environments. CASEL has created an interactive guide to schoolwide social and emotional learning.

CASEL recommends starting here to get an understanding of the big picture.

Guide to Schoolwide SEL

 

Funding SEL at your school

Is your school, district, or charter interested in integrating social-emotional learning across classrooms and campuses?

You can fund and integrate evidence-based SEL programs and activities in your classrooms with federal grant programming. Specialists at ADE developed an easy-to-use funding guide to help you incorporate the SEL competencies and framework into your classrooms and school communities. 

Arizona SEL Funding Guide

 

Professional Development Opportunities

ADE is proud to sponsor and partner with trusted organizations to provide high-quality, evidence-based training that can be completed by individual educators, teams, or trainers.

Please visit our SEL training page to learn about upcoming professional development opportunities. Thanks to federal COVID-19 recovery funding, many options are available at no cost.

SEL Professional Development

 

State Legislation

School leaders can find all the most recent Arizona legislation impacting public schools on our School Year 2021-2022 page under Guidance on New Legislation.

As of Fall 2021, Arizona schools must include mental health instruction in physical education courses. Experts at ADE have developed recommendations and identified resources that will help you implement this requirement. Learn more:

Implementing mental health instruction in physical health courses (ARS 15-701.02)

 

Resources

For more resources, including integrating the five core competencies into the Arizona standards, visit the Arizona SEL Competencies page.

From the Exceptional Student Services Team, this page includes information on professional learning and resources regarding Multi-Tier Behavioral Supports (MTBS), SEL, PBIS, and more. Additionally, it provides information and resources on our team's work with Dr. Bruce Perry and the Neurosequential Model.

From the School Safety and Social Wellness team, this page is meant to serve as a resource for educators and learners to build their mental health inside and outside the classroom. It includes resources from Project AWARE, a Social Emotional and Mental Health Resource Guide, and hotlines that provide help now.

The ADE School Support and Improvement team created a page to provide resources on developing trauma-sensitive schools via schoolwide trauma-informed practices aimed at helping children feel safe, be connected, get regulated, and learn.

The District Student Wellbeing Services Reflection tool was created to help school systems assess and strengthen services and partnerships that support students' mental, physical and emotional health. Districts and charters can customize the tool to suit their needs. The District Student Wellbeing Services Reflection Tool is grounded in the 10-point framework developed by the Coalition to Advance Future Student Success. 

This policy by the American Institutes for Research brief outlines the lessons learned from a multi-year evaluation of districtwide SEL implementation from the Collaborating Districts Initiative in Austin, TX. 

This guide from Harvard’s EASEL Lab provides detailed and transparent information about commonly used, evidence-based SEL programs. By breaking down each program in detail, this report enables schools, preschool, and early childhood education (ECE) providers and out-of-school time (OST) organizations to see whether and how well individual programs might:

  • address their intended SEL goals or needs (e.g., bullying prevention, character education, behavior management, school readiness, etc.)
  • align with a specific mission (e.g., promoting physical fitness, community service, the arts, etc.)
  • meet the specific social, emotional, and behavioral needs of their students (e.g., behavior regulation, conflict resolution, academic motivation, executive function and early learning skills, etc.)
  • fit within their schedule or programmatic structure
  • integrate into existing school climate and culture initiatives, positive behavioral supports, and/or trauma-informed systems
  • complement other educational or programmatic goals outside of SEL (e.g., a school looking to boost student literacy scores or make up for the absence of a regular art or music class might consider selecting a program that frequently incorporates reading and writing activities, drawing and arts & crafts, or music and songs)
  • ensure that SEL programming is equitable (i.e., relevant, beneficial, and culturally appropriate for all students)
  •  bridge OST settings and the regular school day

Guide to Navigating the Leading SEL Programs

CASEL has developed ten indicators of schoolwide implementation of high-quality SEL. These 10 indicators are intended to show the full picture of schoolwide SEL. View the interactive guide to explore the ten indicators.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model approach to learning is critical to the success of students, educators, and communities. Many federal funding streams are already available to support the implementation of the WSCC model for both the students and adults on a school campus. The WSCC Federal Funding Guide intends to expand awareness of the potential opportunities to fund the implementation of WSCC activities and to open the door for further exploration using federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) funds and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds.

WSCC Federal Funding Guide

 

 

  • Welcome to SEL
  • Educators
    • SEL Competencies and Framework
    • Professional Development
    • Educator Peer Support Program
  • Parents and Caregivers
  • Professional Development
  • SEL Competencies and Framework
  • Schools Leaders and Admin
    • Arizona Legislation
    • CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL
    • Professional Development
    • SEL Competencies and Framework
    • SEL Funding Guide
  • Students

From the Social Emotional Learning Blog

May 2022: SEL Newsletter Tue, May 24 2022

Learn more about how Career and Technical Education supports social-emotional learning - and how all educators can integrate the Arizona Professional Skills into their classrooms. 

April 2022: SEL Newsletter Mon, May 2 2022

Learn more about how our School Safety Grant Program supports social and emotional learning and opportunities for schools and teachers to receive additional SEL training

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