Research shows that SEL and mental health well-being is the foundation of academic success and is even more critical during times of crisis. The following resources offer guidelines, strategies, and information for educators to manage stress, practice self-care, and build SEL skills with their students.
NEW Featured Resource: Crosswalk of American School Counselor Association's (ASCA) Mindsets and Behaviors and Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning's (CASEL) Five Competencies - Vermont School Counselor Association (VTSCA) designed a crosswalk that includes VT SEL competencies tied to learning targets, grouped by grade level (PreK - 12). Rather than create your own, feel free to use this document to help your school district use these standards along with the learning targets to support your students with SEL needs.
National SEL Week is coming up, March 3-7, 2025!
NEW Featured Resource: School Climate and Belonging - Access this web page for resources and educational research connecting areas of school climate with successful student outcomes. A positive school climate promotes school safety, student engagement, emotional wellness, and a strong sense of belonging for everyone. Contact: Michele.Hartje@vermont.gov
NEW Featured Resource: #SELday - This site has toolkits to help you showcase, promote, advocate for and support SEL in your local school, organization and community.
Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging within Colorado's Multi-Tiered System of Support - This website is for educators, administrators, and other education professionals who are interested in increasing wellbeing and belonging in their schools. The goal of the Landscape project is to blend guidance, resources, systems, and best practices to improve outcomes for students, staff, and families. Colorado’s model is aligned with the VTmtss Framework.
Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools: An Action Guide for School and District Leaders - This action guide was designed for school administrators in kindergarten through 12th grade schools (K-12), including principals and leaders of school-based student support teams, to identify evidence-based strategies, approaches, and practices that can positively influence students’ mental health.
The School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System is a public-access, web-based platform that offers schools, districts, and states a workspace and targeted resources to support school mental health quality improvement.
SEL and ELLs: The CASEL Framework - What does all of this look like for ELLs? One way to share some concrete examples is by using the CASEL SEL framework. We have shared excerpts of the framework here and encourage you to look at the complete framework on CASEL's website. Please note that under "Examples," we have only highlighted a few skill sets that are particularly relevant for ELLs, but CASEL lists others as well.
SEL And Mental Health: Making Connections with VTmtss - This document is intended to be used by school systems that are reviewing and improving their system of social-emotional learning and mental health supports and will be most effective when used in conjunction with the VTmtss Systems Screener, the VTmtss Framework, and VTmtss Driver Diagram as an organizational tool for action planning.
Supporting Educators Well-being Using Evidence-Based Supports - Educators play a vital role in supporting students’ well-being and mental health. This fact sheet by WestEd describes the importance of staff members’ well-being so that can better support the well-being of students.
Vermont Model School Protocol for Suicide Prevention - The Department of Health and DMH developed a resource for school leaders and staff which highlights the key elements of youth suicide prevention work in schools and identifies free and low-cost trainings: Suicide Prevention Training for Schools.
The Vermont School Mental Health Systems Toolkit - The AOE, in partnership with the Vermont Department of Mental Health, has created this toolkit to support Local Education Agencies, schools, community advocates, and local leaders working together to assess, identify, prioritize, and fund school-based mental health services. This toolkit is a collection of resources for school/community leadership teams to enable them to learn about a problem of practice and identify approaches for addressing it.