Social & Emotional Learning

Attendance Works

As a nonprofit initiative, Attendance Works partners with schools, districts, states, communities and organizations to ensure that chronic absence is recognized as a serious issue that can be addressed through proactive, supportive strategies. Their website offers resources for monitoring, understanding, and addressing chronic absence beginning in the early grades through secondary school. These strategies can be implemented at the school, district, and state level. You can find resources to help develop:

Positive Engagement with families and students
Actionable Data to help you identify students with too many absences
Capacity Building to help build a culture of attendance in your classroom, school or district.
Find toolkits under Capacity Building.

All tools can be downloaded and used without express permission from Attendance Works.

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Communities of Practice: Facilitators’ Guide

A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of peers who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic, who come together regularly to fulfill both individual and group goals. A CoP provides an environment conducive to learning and exchange, emphasizing interactions in a climate of mutual trust and respect. Within the RSSI framework, a CoP can also serve as a strategy within a school or district’s action plan, helping to deepen implementation and foster collaborative, practice-based growth. This guide provides the history of CoPs in Illinois’ trauma responsive schools work and helps facilitators plan for and facilitate a Community of Practice. This is guide is a collaboration among Center for Childhood Resilience, Partnership 4 Resilience, and Stress & Trauma Treatment Center.

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Teach Illinois

TeachIllinois offers online Professional Learning opportunities for ALL educators – you don’t have to live in Illinois to participate. The offers courses that qualify for official PD Hours toward recertification for a small fee.

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Communities of Practice: Facilitators’ Guide

A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of peers who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic, who come together regularly to fulfill both individual and group goals. A CoP provides an environment conducive to learning and exchange, emphasizing interactions in a climate of mutual trust and respect. Within the RSSI framework, a CoP can also serve as a strategy within a school or district’s action plan, helping to deepen implementation and foster collaborative, practice-based growth. This guide provides the history of CoPs in Illinois’ trauma responsive schools work and helps facilitators plan for and facilitate a Community of Practice. This is guide is a collaboration among Center for Childhood Resilience, Partnership 4 Resilience, and Stress & Trauma Treatment Center.

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Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH)

REACH is a model in Illinois for creating positive change in schools that consists of four steps: school team formation, evidence-based assessment, action planning, and implementation support. Initially focused exclusively on Trauma-Responsiveness and Healing-Centeredness, REACH also includes three additional pillars: Mental Health; Social and Emotional Learning; and CARE (Culturally Awareness, Responsiveness and Equity).

REACH is a partnership led by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago’s Center for Childhood Resilience and Illinois State Board of Education’s Learning Renewal program in partnership with regional SEL Hubs, Partnership for Resilience, and Stress & Trauma Treatment Center.

Schools play a central and critical role in helping students build their capacity to cope with stress and life problems – in other words, resilience. Research shows that the majority of students experiencing mental health challenges receive the help they need from staff in their school. When they feel safe and supported, students have more capacity to be creative, innovative and open to learning.

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SEL Staff Survey Needs Assessment Facilitator Guide

This is a complementary, step-by-step guide to completing CASEL’s SEL Staff Survey Needs Assessment tool, which is used as a starting point in supporting schools and districts in creating a safe, supportive school environment. Indicators guide how schools may demonstrate success in each area within the nine domains of SEL Staff Survey. Overall, the assessment tool provides suggestions for action planning that can be adjusted to meet the needs of the school and/or district using it. Resources to further support action planning can be found through the RSSI system as well as the Action Plan Facilitator Guide found here.

The School-based Staff SEL Implementation Survey is a tool used in the SEL pillar of the Resilient Supportive Schools Illinois (RSSI) initiative, and is designed to be taken by staff members working in one school setting. The data and results will support school-based SEL teams in collecting data on staff SEL implementation practices and perceptions.

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Action Planning Facilitator Guide

This guide will take you through the REACH process for your action planning. Specifically, it will provide your school team with tools and resources for developing, implementing, monitoring, and improving resilience-supportive policies, processes and practices.

REACH is a model for creating positive change in schools that consists of four steps: school team formation, evidence-based assessment, action planning, and implementation support. Initially focused exclusively on Trauma-Responsiveness and Healing-Centeredness, REACH has expanded to also include three additional pillars: Mental Health; Social and Emotional Learning; and CARE (Cultural Awareness, Responsiveness and Equity).

Schools play a central and critical role in helping students build their capacity to cope with stress and life problems – in other words, resilience. Research shows that the majority of students experiencing mental health challenges receive the help they need from staff in their school. When they feel safe and supported, students have more capacity to be creative, innovative and open to learning.

Action Planning Facilitator Guide Read More »

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