When schools, families, and communities promote social and emotional learning (SEL), children and youth do better academically and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. In the long term, they are also more likely to enjoy career and family success. However, some children and youth need additional, more intensive mental health supports to achieve these outcomes.

Around the world, EDC partners with caregivers, formal and nonformal educators, community-based organizations, and state- and national-level agencies to foster SEL and address mental health needs. Our work helps communities and school districts build strong systems of SEL and mental health supports, use evidence-based practices, and improve policy.

Learn more about Education & Wellbeing, EDC’s innovative, data-driven solution to addressing school districts’ SEL and mental health needs.

Resources

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This tool helps Head Start programs better understand the link between their school readiness goals and their health service plans. Created for program leaders, health managers, and school readiness teams, the tool contains a five-step process for examining the links between health and learning for five essential domains of school readiness.
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This resource identifies existing instruments used to measure three social and emotional learning skills among secondary school students: collaboration, perseverance, and self-regulated learning.
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This document provides practitioners with a five-session coaching series on how to use the social and emotional learning (SEL) research literature to identify evidence-based SEL interventions to implement in their districts. The presentation, exercises, and worksheets have been adapted to meet the needs of self-guided learners.
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Use this tool to create a comprehensive map of all of your SEL and mental health programs, practices, and policies using the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework. This inventory is the first step to understanding what’s working well now and identifying gaps and areas to strengthen.
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Employ this tool to reflect on how your district currently identifies students who need additional SEL and mental health services beyond what is offered in the classroom, how you connect students with support, and how you monitor students’ progress. Completing this tool is key to analyzing your current process.
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Sneak preview of one section of our comprehensive 30-page self-assessment. The full tool can help your team take a deep dive into assessing the processes and systems that bring SEL and mental health supports into one cohesive and effective system. The tool also builds your knowledge of MTSS and helps you evaluate whether your school has MTSS for SEL and mental health.