Social & Emotional Learning

A Guide to Federal Education Programs That Can Fund K-12 Universal Prevention and Social and Emotional Learning Activities

Children playing at the playground

This guide is intended to help districts take advantage of federal education funding by identifying K-12 grant programs in the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that could be used to implement prevention efforts in elementary and secondary schools. CHHCS and the Center on Education Policy analyzed dozens of federally funded programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education. This research found 15 specific funded programs that contain either explicit or implicit authority for prevention-related activities. The main sections of this guide describe each of these programs, including their purpose, recent funding levels, entities eligible for funding, and specific provisions in the authorizing legislation, regulations, or program guidance that explicitly or implicitly permit funds to be used for prevention.

Current Project: Sustaining school-connected social, emotional, and behavioral programs

Edutopia: Tips and Resources for Funding an SEL Program (May 19, 2016)

The Impact of School-Connected Behavioral and Emotional Health Interventions on Student Academic Performance: An Annotated Bibliography of Research Literature

This annotated bibliography provides a systematic review of current literature published between 2001 and 2013 and summarizes findings on the relationship between prevention-focused behavioral health interventions, such as social and emotional (SEL) learning programs, and their impact on academic outcomes.

Financing and Funding for SEL Initiatives
Chapter 8, written by Olga Acosta Price, in CASEL’s Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning: Research and Practice.

CHHCS & CASEL
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) established a partnership to identify effective financial strategies to sustain social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices in school districts and states nationwide, an initiative generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Read more about CASEL here.