Supporting School Community Wellness with Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) During and After a Pandemic

Christina Cipriano, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine

Gabrielle Rappolt-Schlichtmann, Executive Director and Chief Scientist, EdTogether

Marc Brackett, Founder and Director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

Executive Summary

When COVID-19 descended upon the nation in March 2020, schools across the country quickly turned to social and emotional learning (SEL) to seek guidance to support all school community members’ efforts to thrive. School closures required a rapid transition to remote learning amid unprecedented and disproportionate experiences of loss that intensified existing educational inequities. Coinciding with the pandemic, the violent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, followed by tense nationwide protests, awakened a longstanding need to support racial justice, foster equity, and dismantle structural racism.

These social conditions and experiences of loss have presented challenges to wellness that continue to weigh heavily on the physical and mental health of educators, students, and families, especially for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities and among those with disabilities.

When implemented with fidelity, SEL provides a foundation for resilience that benefits all members of a school community, supporting greater student engagement, social-emotional health, and academic achievement in addition to increasing engagement and well-being among educators, school leaders, and families. What have we learned from high-quality SEL implementation and prior crises that can help prepare school communities for what’s to come? And what have we learned from the disproportionate experiences of this pandemic in underserved and marginalized communities to chart our way forward? In this brief we explore the role of SEL in promoting wellness during the compounding traumas of a pandemic. We identify Bright Spots—examples of how SEL research and practice are being applied to support wellness during this crisis and that may be used in related crises moving forward, and Ripe Spots—opportunities for SEL to support the anticipated needs of schools toward the promotion of school community wellness.

Related Resources

Reports and Paper

  • Resources and Examples: Learning in the Time of COVID-19
    Learning Policy Institute

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