SEL Learning & Instruction

Universal Classroom Strategies for Mental Health Awareness and Bullying Prevention

April 1, 2026

Children’s Wisconsin’s free health e-learning content provides a fun and engaging way to engage students is health education. Lessons, games and activities are organized by grade level, and some is available in Spanish. All content is brought to you by the health education experts at Children’s Wisconsin, one of the leading pediatric health systems in the country. Children’s E-Learning Center content brings important health and wellness concepts to life for students in five topic areas, including mental and emotional health, and bullying prevention. Mental and emotional health content is divided into grade level and includes interactive lessons, activities and games focus on education about mental and emotional health and raising awareness of common mental health issues.

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From a Nation of Risk to a Nation of Hope

June 30, 2025

This report explores how the promotion of social, emotional, and academic learning is not a shifting educational fad; it is the substance of education itself. A solid body of scientific evidence confirms that learning has social, emotional, and cognitive dimensions that are inextricably linked. It is not a distraction from the “real work” of math and English instruction; it is how instruction can succeed. And it is not another reason for political polarization. It brings together a traditionally conservative emphasis on local control and on the character of all students, and a historically progressive emphasis on the creative and challenging art of teaching and the social and emotional needs of all students, especially those who have experienced the greatest challenges. Based on conversations with hundreds of people across the nation over the past two years, including students and their families, the report’s recommendations describe strategies that can help local communities address young people’s comprehensive development, including illustrative examples from the field.

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6 Ways to Sustain SEL in Schools

June 30, 2025

Sustaining SEL efforts over the long term is crucial to allow children to adequately develop these skills. But that sustainability faces barriers in the form of staff turnover, limitations on resources, and competing for precious classroom time against other programs and initiatives. This article provides six key ways to support sustaining SEL PreK–12 efforts districtwide.

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Social and emotional learning is hegemonic miseducation: students deserve humanization instead

June 30, 2025

This article examines the pedagogy and psychology of humanization as a viable framework to confront systemically imposed self-hate, divide and conquer, and sub oppression if it teaches students knowledge (and love) of self, solidarity, and self-determination. The ahistorical objectives of social and emotional learning fall short of repairing the cultural contempt of hegemonic miseducation and does not address the primary social forces negatively impacting the health and wellness of communities of color – their colonial relationship with inequitable social systems. In this article, it is posited that humanization be put in place of social and emotional learning because SEL’s inadequate analysis of intersecting oppressions justifies existing power relations in communities and schools.

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Transformative SEL

June 30, 2025

“Transformative SEL” is a form of SEL implementation where young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting relationships to engage in co-learning. It facilitates critical examination of individual and contextual factors that contribute to inequities and collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being. Through SEL, students and adults develop social and emotional skills needed for school and community engagement, with a focus on rights and responsibilities for creating learning environments that are caring and just.

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CASEL’s SEL Framework

June 30, 2025

Learn more about CASEL’S framework, known to many as the “CASEL wheel,” that helps cultivate skills and environments that advance students’ learning and development. This framework creates a foundation for applying evidence-based SEL strategies to your school community.

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Principals’ Social & Emotional Competence: a Key Factor in Creating Caring Schools

June 30, 2025

School principals have substantial impacts on many aspects of their schools, including school climate and culture, teacher well-being and retention, and students’ school success. As such, the personal and professional development of principals is a key element in creating a caring school in which adults and children feel welcomed, cared for, and challenged. It is now recognized that principals experience substantial job-related stress which can compromise their personal well-being as well as their leadership. Surprisingly, the social and emotional development and well-being of principals has received little attention.

This brief provides a conceptual model of the Prosocial School Leader, which has two components. The first is the principal’s own social and emotional competence (SEC) and the ability to handle stress and model caring and culturally competent behaviors with staff and students. The second component is an enhanced model of leadership in which principals are the prosocial leaders whose responsibility is to ensure that all staff, students, parents, and community members feel safe, cared for, respected, and valued. Principals’ SECs, well-being, and leadership form the foundation that influences the effective implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL), school climate, teacher functioning and well-being, family and community partnerships, and downstream student outcomes.

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Connecting Schoolwide SEL with Other School-Based Frameworks

June 30, 2025

Some of the most common frameworks for organizing student supports are Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Adopting schoolwide SEL does not mean that a school must abandon these existing frameworks. Rather, schoolwide SEL offers an opportunity to enhance or refine existing systems of support. This guide from CASEL defines Schoolwide SEL, MTSS, and PBIS, then describes how these frameworks can align with and complement one another.

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Building a Culture of Joyful Learning

June 30, 2025

Research shows that students who feel known and valued are more prepared to meaningfully engage in learning. Students who experience a sense of belonging have better self-esteem, higher rates of classroom participation, and higher academic achievement (Korpershoek, 2018). As a result of creating a positive school climate for both students and educators, the elementary school featured in this report had the conditions in place to make rapid academic gains. When educators implemented the instructional improvements described in this case study, student proficiency improved dramatically because children were in the right mindset for learning.

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Framework for Early Childhood: Pyramid Model

June 30, 2025

Framework for Early Childhood: The Pyramid Model is a framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s healthy social and emotional development.

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