Analyzing CASEL’s SEL Roadmap for Reopening School

Educators across the country are grappling with unprecedented circumstances as they prepare to welcome students and adults back to school.

To help guide district and school leaders in their plans for the fall, CASEL — in collaboration with more than 40 organizations — recently released an evidence-based roadmap to support the inclusion of social-emotional learning in reentry plans.

The guidelines outlined in this report were developed using feedback from focus groups and interviews with state members in the Collaborating States Initiative, districts in the Collaborating Districts Initiative, and national experts.

Schools at any stage of SEL implementation can use this roadmap to build upon existing efforts around community-building, school climate improvement, family engagement, student well-being and mental health, trauma-responsive learning environments, restorative practices, and social-emotional competency development.

The roadmap offers four SEL Critical Practices divided into specific activities. Each activity provides essential questions intended to prompt schools to reflect and pause, followed by actions steps to prepare and implement SEL practices. Each activity also has a corresponding set of user-friendly tools to help operationalize the guidance. Lastly, each critical practice has recommendations to sustain the work.