Unseen and often silent, the shadows of bullying loom within the walls of schools, casting a dark cloud over the lives of countless students. The PACER Center’s National Bullying Prevention Center engages and empowers kids to combat bullying in all its forms. Through the Students with Solutions contest, my 5^th grade students worked together to raise awareness about bullying and encourage children to actively participate in addressing this issue. This challenge amplified their voices and empowered them to inspire and support one another, creating a united front against bullying.

The winning entry within the “Student with Solutions” national anti-bullying competition this year is a video by my two 5^th grade classes within the Birmingham City Schools System. The students wrote, filmed, and edited the video. It inspires unity and support, drawing from the students’ experiences, with the main message being that bullying hurts and everyone matters.

Students enjoy technology, so being able to integrate technology in an academic setting is highly advantageous. In this instance, we were able to combine social-emotional learning and technology, which are both important in this day and age.

Bullying refers to repeated and intentional aggressive behavior, where one or more individuals target another person to harm, intimidate, or exert control over them. Bullying can take various forms, including:

Physical bullying: This includes physical acts of aggression, such as hitting, kicking, pushing, tripping, or damaging someone’s belongings.

Key points:

• Social emotional learning looks to evidence-based classroom practices to support a critical development in children
• Educators can employ several strategies to deal with the politicization of social emotional learning
• See related article: 3 key parts of this district’s student mental health support

The concept of social emotional learning​​ (SEL) has been around for 30 years—a bit of esoteric, if well-meaning, academia intended to improve the way kids are taught. Post-pandemic, the phrase has somehow entered the culture wars leaving educators with a delicate balance between implementing these essential concepts without becoming politicized. 

If the pandemic taught us nothing else, it’s that the mental health of students is the first and foremost concern to successful teaching and learning—not to mention their parents, teachers, and everyone else associated with that student’s learning experience. So how can educators and admins cope? We sat down with Justina Schlund, Vice President of Communications at Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to bang out some specific strategies for schools to employ if this becomes an issue in your district. Scroll down for some of the transcribed and edited highlights:

ESN: It’s best to start at the beginning. What is CASEL’s definition of SEL?

JS: You can look on our website for the official definition but basically, social and emotional learning is about developing all of the skills that last a lifetime. Things like staying motivated, communicating really effectively, understanding other people, and making decisions that are good for ourselves, and the community around us. So it is a sort of developmental process that happens from the time we were born, and now throughout our adulthood.

One of many post-pandemic truths exposed and emphasized is that learning outcomes suffer without proper student mental health measures.

In this episode of Innovations in Education, host Kevin Hogan has a conversation with Sonny Thadani, CEO of Robin, to explore how SEL can be integrated into district policies and school curricula. The key? Get everyone involved.

When GEMS American Academy returned to in-person schooling after the COVID shutdowns, one of the first things our positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) team noticed was that we had a significant increase in behavior problems. We knew that our students would respond well to rewards for positive behaviors, but in the past, we found it difficult to manage a schoolwide system and to ensure it was used consistently by teachers.

We decided to continue using our updated House system, CritterCoin, to track positive behaviors and manage rewards, and took some extra steps to encourage teachers to use it. Each year our use of the system has grown. In year one, some teachers struggled to make the transition, but those same teachers are now taking the lead in using it to encourage positive behaviors in their classrooms. Here’s how we’ve been working to bring teachers and students on board.

Addressing Negative Behaviors

Though we believe the most effective way to improve student behavior is to encourage positive behaviors, negative behaviors don’t just go away if we ignore them. In order to be able to fully address them, we need to have the necessary data to be able to identify key areas of concern. We’d previously been using a shared Google form where all teachers could log negative behaviors, but this data can easily be lost and is hard to track. Due to those struggles, we are moving our behavior tracking system over to PowerSchool so that our admin is able to see the log of information for any student for as long as they are in our school.

Once that data is all collected together, we can see patterns, such as cohorts of students who are having a difficult time or problem areas in the school where incidents tend to occur more frequently. If we notice that young students are frequently having issues in the bathroom, for example, we will send lesson plans to the teachers in those early grades so that they can take their students to the bathroom—or wherever else the behavior is occurring—and teach them what the expected behaviors in that place are.

We also have posters printed to put up in specific areas, such as the hallways, bathrooms, classrooms, auditorium, outdoor play areas, and even on the iPad and laptop trolleys. These also focus on the positive behaviors we’d like to see in those areas, which are all based on our four values. Those attributes are that we are Respectful, we take Ownership, we have a positive Attitude, and we are Responsible. Our school mascot is a wildcat, so we use the acronym ROAR to help students remember these attributes.

How Our PBIS System Works

To award and track points by students and by House, we use the CritterCoin system. Right now we have two separate systems because our secondary students were using a different set of values to identify positive behaviors, but we plan to combine the two with a single set of shared attributes in the next few years. We also plan to add a school-wide display with the running House totals at the same time.

Technology has become increasingly important to every level of education, and its value to social-emotional learning, or SEL, is no exception. Just as digital tools provide educators with innovative and flexible ways to reinforce learning in core academic subjects, they can be used to more effectively teach the social-emotional and life skills that students need to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

An essential part of my role as vice president of product for Committee for Children, an industry leader in SEL, is to keep a close eye on trends in education technology. After spending more than 25 years in edtech, I know how crucial it is for educators to understand how to leverage technology to support SEL in practical, meaningful ways.

Here are four of the latest SEL edtech trends that districts and schools can use this year to support the social-emotional well-being of students and staff, enhance students’ engagement with SEL content, and improve family communications.

Trend 1: On-Demand Professional Development

Professional development (PD) that strengthens educator well-being is a crucial and sometimes overlooked part of SEL for students. With teacher turnover rates on the rise, sustained, meaningful investments in the mental wellness of educators should be a top priority for school and district leaders. Professional learning that’s rooted in SEL can help by giving staff tools to manage stress, build trust, and increase resilience.

Higher levels of educator well-being also benefit students. Research shows that teachers with strong social-emotional skills have better relationships with students, enhanced instructional quality, and improved classroom climate.

However, the last thing teachers need is more work on their plates. I’ve seen time and again how leaders can help create buy-in by choosing a program that works for teachers’ busy schedules. It’s increasingly important that teachers can access PD online and on demand. This way, they can engage in learning on their own, and in their own time, rather than at costly, all-day conferences.

Districts nationwide are providing ongoing education for staff, with an increased focus on skill development and flexible learning. The incremental nature of on-demand PD gives teachers take-aways they can use immediately while allowing for consistent practice and growth throughout the year. This presents them with the ability and opportunity to infuse SEL throughout the school day and across disciplines to support students’ development. 

Trend 2: Bite-Sized, Social Family Communications

Communication with families has always been essential for schools and districts, but in the last few years, I’ve seen an increased demand for bite-sized, highly focused messages. Gone are the days of the three-page newsletter—there’s just no time! Families are already inundated with communications from schools, their own work, and everything in between.

Educators are finding that fun video- and audio-based communications are an effective way to share information. Whether they take the form of TikTok-style videos, texts, or app-based messages, to-the-point digital communications are a great way to keep families engaged in their children’s social-emotional learning.

When communications are more accessible, they can also be more equitable. In-person meetings or long Zoom calls require time, equipment, and other resources that families may not have. Language can be another barrier to family communication (the National Education Association estimates that by 2025, one of four children in U.S. classrooms will be English-language learner students), but some messaging tools include translation features to help everyone in the school community stay connected.

Trend 3: Gamified SEL

It’s no secret that video and online games are a huge part of many children’s lives. Transferring students’ enthusiasm for digital games to the classroom is a great way to keep them motivated and engaged—and enhance their social-emotional development. A research-based approach to gamified SEL gives students the opportunity to practice and strengthen social-emotional skills in fun, interactive, low-stakes ways.

Introducing gaming into the classroom is also a way to observe and develop the social-emotional skills kids may have already started to learn in their personal gaming at home, such as working with others and making decisions as a team. Research has shown that popular games like Minecraft can be used in the classroom to foster social connectedness and collaboration and support learning across subject areas.

Trend 4: Digital Check-Ins and Pulse Surveys

It’s valuable for educators to be able to get quick and meaningful feedback about the social-emotional climate in schools and classrooms. Simple tech tools like digital word clouds, polls, and gamified quizzes are a great way to take a “pulse check” on how students and educators are feeling in the moment.

Over time, this data may show trends in moods, behaviors, and performance. For example, feedback might reveal that students are less engaged on the first day after a long break, more enthusiastic on Thursdays, or sleepier in the first week of daylight savings. Teachers can use these insights to adapt their approach and set students up for success.

Additionally, digital SEL programs may include tracking tools, data reports, and self-assessments that capture in-the-moment information about individual and classroom progress. When leaders are more informed about the well-being and performance of their students and staff, they can better support SEL implementation and strengthen school climate.

More Technology, More Possibilities for SEL

As the volume and variety of technology that’s available to educators continues to expand, so do the possibilities for how these tools can be applied in the classroom. Throughout my career, I’ve seen edtech evolve in its ability to give teachers more options for efficient, flexible, and responsive instruction.

When applied to SEL, these tools can also help you strengthen staff and educator well-being, reinforce students’ social-emotional development, engage and connect families, and gather insights to support learning. By leveraging a few of these latest tech trends, you can create opportunities for serious enhancements to the social-emotional well-being of everyone in your school communities.

Related:
SEL is an educator essential
Prioritizing teacher well-being can help schools retain talent

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an approach to learning that focuses on the social and emotional skills necessary for students to succeed in school and life. SEL is not new, but it has recently gained momentum as more educators recognize the importance of teaching social and emotional skills.

With this new approach, schools focus on developing students’ social and emotional skills to help them succeed academically and socially. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to identify and manage one’s emotions and those of others, use emotional information in thinking, and understand the emotional significance of events.

What are the Benefits of SEL?

SEL is a process that helps people manage their emotions, develop social skills, and build relationships. It’s a way to help children and adults become more aware of the world around them. It also helps them develop better relationships with others. SEL is a process that helps students develop critical social and emotional skills. The goal is to help children become more successful in school and life. The benefits of SEL are numerous. For one, it helps children develop self-awareness, which can be an essential aspect of success. Secondly, it can help reduce bullying behavior because children learn how to identify the emotions of others and how to manage their own emotions. Finally, it has been shown to reduce aggression in students and increase academic achievement. SEL is not just about overcoming challenges or dealing with difficult situations. It’s about developing the skills necessary for success in life.

How to Implement SEL in Schools?

SEL is a type of education that focuses on children’s social and emotional development. It helps students develop skills in empathy, self-awareness, self-management, interpersonal relationships, responsible decision-making, and the ability to control impulses. SEL aims to foster a healthy school climate by providing opportunities for all students to learn about their emotions and how they affect themselves and others. There are many ways to implement SEL in schools, but it is important to remember that this must be done in a meaningful and effective way for the students. SEL strategies are a vital part of a teacher’s toolkit. They help students develop the skills they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

The three most common SEL strategies teachers use are:

1) Teaching self-awareness: Students learn to recognize their own feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. They also learn how these affect others and themselves.

2) Teaching social awareness: Students learn about different cultures, groups, and relationships between people.

3) Teaching responsible decision-making: Students learn how to make decisions that will result in positive outcomes for themselves and others.

Teaching students to control their behavior and emotions is a relatively new one for teachers to consider. However, changes in family dynamics, the rise of social media, and increased technology use have necessitated a shift. Teachers should set clear goals for students, provide feedback on work, and maintain a positive classroom environment to encourage self-regulation skills.

The Importance of Teaching Students Social-Emotional Skills

The importance of teaching students social and emotional skills is not to be underestimated. It is challenging to know how much these skills will affect a student’s life, but it is clear that they have the potential to make a huge impact. Students developing social and emotional skills are more likely to succeed in school and their future careers. They are more likely to have better relationships with their peers, teachers, and parents. They are also less likely to experience mental health conditions like anxiety or depression.

As the world becomes more connected and technology advances, we are seeing a shift in how children are raised. This change has led to an increase in mental health issues in children. Teaching social-emotional skills can help children develop these skills and lead them to be more successful in life. Social-emotional skills are essential for every child to learn, and they can be taught through everyday interactions with other people, such as teachers, parents, or even peers. These skills include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Related:
What SEL teaches us about safety
Teachers can’t keep up with the need for SEL

As was the case for so many other therapists working with children and families, March 2020 felt overwhelming in our center for child and family therapy. From seeing clients in-person all day in our client-centered, carefully designed therapy rooms equipped with all the therapeutic tools that a child therapist might need to engage a child in the hard work of therapy, we scrambled to figure out a way to transfer our clinical tools to the virtual realm. The transition from using toys, games, animal assisted therapy, art, music, movement, and parent-child attunement enhancing interventions to connecting through a digital screen seemed at times to be an impossible mission.

The transition was especially challenging for our very young clients and those who appeared to have significant struggles with the adjustment to virtual education. Even after weeks of creating and identifying multiple virtual tools that enabled us to engage most of our clients in expressive ways to process their experiences and share their internal worlds with us, we consistently received skeptical messages from parents who were certain that their child would not be able to effectively use a virtual platform for their therapy work.

We were convinced that we would be eager to return to our carefully designed, in-person therapy rooms as soon as we possibly could safely do so. Little did we know that we would not only find the virtual therapeutic tools to be highly effective, even in some of our most challenging and complex cases, but we would also discover that there are many unexpected and valuable therapeutic benefits that come with this virtual approach to providing child and family mental health therapy services. 

Logistical and Therapeutic Benefits of Virtual Therapy

The benefits of virtual therapy are both logistic and therapeutic. Parents have found that avoiding the “schlep” has been a significant help for them in their overly scheduled family-lives. In addition, the common reasons for canceling sessions have been greatly reduced, allowing for a consistent and predictable therapy schedule for children, which are significant factors in the efficacy of treatment and child-therapist relationships.

Related:
Teletherapy’s crucial role in reaching remote students
COVID-era teletherapy authorizations are expiring, but the problem persists

Therapeutically, we have been able to include family members (especially furry family members!) in new ways. When animals/pets are included in therapy, children feel more comfortable and open to process difficult thoughts and feelings. Connecting from the comfort (or for some, the discomfort) of their own personal environment encourages clients to share more fully and deeply about themselves and their home lives. They are able to show us their rooms, their favorite stuffed animals, and the reality of their family-life burdens. We observed this to be a clear benefit when one of our clients who had been in treatment for over a year began revealing family difficulties that they (and their parents) had kept protected until the therapist was able to “be in their home” virtually. While the treatment had been slow to progress during in-person sessions, the family dynamics were more distinctly revealed during virtual sessions, and the treatment started progressing in a more targeted way towards healing and repair.

“Being invited to our clients’ homes” also allows us to observe our clients’ experiences in their natural environments, rather than relying on reports and different perceptions. This proved to be highly valuable not only for our clinical assessments, but also for our ability to more accurately understand some of the environmental context as we witnessed some of these events and relationship dynamics first-hand. While these benefits became clear as we witnessed more and more therapeutic progress in our clients, we also had many hurdles to overcome; especially when it came to enhancing the efficacy and children’s (and parents’) willingness to engage in virtual therapy.

Challenges of Virtual Therapy

The transition to online sessions posed some significant challenges to the three main areas we consider to be crucial for the establishment of the sense of safety and trust that are at the root of the therapeutic relationship: How would a child feel connected, represented, and reflected with two screens and many miles between us?

Based on our training and previous experience, it seemed inconceivable to us that an authentic, trusting therapeutic connection could be created when the therapist and the client were not sharing the same physical space. A strong sense of connection reduces cortisol and increases dopamine, promoting client’s availability for therapeutic processing as well as resource- and skill-building. Many of the modalities we had been using for the purpose of promoting such a sense of connection (such as Theraplay®, sensory motor therapy, somatic therapy, expressive therapy, nature therapy, and animal-assisted therapy) are based on the therapist’s ability to incorporate playfulness, presence, eye contact, and touch. While we quickly found ways to be playful and engaging on a virtual platform, not sharing the same physical space made it challenging to demonstrate attuned presence, while use of eye contact and touch became impossible.

The physical distance, combined with the limited ability to notice important nervous system signals such as subtle nonverbal cues including the breath and the energy level of our clients, posed significant barriers to our ability to “accurately read” our clients’ mental state in order to effectively connect and intervene.    

Furthermore, the materials we had selected to share with clients in our office had been carefully selected and designed to demonstrate positive representations of our clients, their unique attributes, cultural diversity, different abilities, mobilities, areas of strengths and needs, and areas of interests. Research shows that self-representation leads to an increase in:

• Self-esteem;
• Sense of belonging and comfort in social settings;
• Understanding of self and others;
• Pride in your own identity; and
• Capacity for learning.

We wondered if seeing our clients virtually would allow them to feel welcomed and represented in the same ways. Infusing diverse representation requires a level of attention to details that did not seem to be as widely available in the commonly used online therapy tools. According to NAEYC.org, a social setting that doesn’t reflect and validate children’s diverse identity may lead children to feel invisible, unimportant, incompetent, and ashamed of who they are. These feelings stand in complete contrast to what we work so hard to foster in our safe, affirming, and normalizing therapy settings.

Techniques such as reflective statements, head nods, eye movement, and synchronized breathing are widely used in therapy to foster a sense of security and safety between a therapist and a client. This careful and intentional reflection by the therapist will provide them with the supportive messages of, “my feelings make sense and are ok to feel.”  By paying close attention to both their nonverbal and verbal communication and attempting to reflect it back, we can co-regulate our client’s nervous system and help them feel seen, heard, understood, and contained, which enables children to form an organized and integrated framework for processing and articulating their experiences and internal worlds.

This response to reflections can be explained by mirror neurons, which are a group of neurons that activate in our brain when we perform an action that mirrors another person’s action, or when we see our own action being performed by others. These neurons are active in human babies from birth and are considered crucial for our species’ survival. As Dan Siegel explains, a predictable sequence of motor actions being perceived by a series of sensory inputs creates a clear neuro-mapping of behavioral intentions that will determine the level of safety and security that a person can feel during an interaction with another person. Since virtual platforms limit our view of each other’s body language, and with connection through mirror neurons being necessary in order to build empathy, reciprocity, theory of mind, and other skills that are foundational for our capacity to form human connections and foster a sense of security in relationships, it was clear that we would need to find ways to “fire up” our mirror neurons within the limitations of the square screen.

Once we were able to identify these possible barriers in using virtual platforms for therapy with children, we were determined to find tools that would enable us to continue practicing in ways that address what we consider to be at the root of the therapeutic relationship: connection, reflection, and representation. Here is a list of some of the tools we found to be highly effective in overcoming these barriers. 

Activities for Connection and Reflection While Apart

Theraplay© activities focus on four different dimensions of the parent-child relationships: engagement, challenge, structure, and nurture. These activities allow us to work with clients of all ages from prenatal to adolescents, along with siblings and caregivers by targeting the areas of needs in their relationships and enhancing the areas of strengths. Since we know that in-person Theraplay® activities are designed to activate our mirror neurons in order to facilitate deep connections and enhance attachments, we turned to these activities for our virtual sessions. In fact, in the spring of 2020 the Theraplay® Institute quickly rolled out modified virtual versions of attachment and connection enhancement activities which also included synchronicity as a newly discussed key element of connection.

One especially effective activity is the mirror game, where the therapist and client take turns moving their hands, head, and even facial expression as the “leader” while the other follows as the “mirror.” We also built special handshakes by bumping our fists, noses or elbows to the camera. These, along with other Theraplay© activities, are now part of our routines for opening and closing virtual sessions in order to establish and maintain reflection and connection with our clients. For example, a 6-year-old who had difficulty feeling connected on the virtual platform kept her camera off and stayed muted during school. She was enrolled in our virtual connection therapy group due to her severe anxiety about participating on screen. After observing her group peers creating their special handshake, each adding a new move to make it longer and more challenging, the screen came on with a monkey stuffed animal face, rather than the client’s face. The “monkey” joined in the handshake!

After three weeks of participating via the monkey, the client felt comfortable and connected enough to join the handshake, and soon after that, to join the entire group session. Not only did the client make these gains in the therapy group, but when we informed her teacher about this connection strategy, it enabled the client to increase participation and decrease anxiety during the difficult days of virtual school. One of her parents even started using the special handshake with her first thing in the morning to start the day off feeling connected!                                   

Virtual Tool for Expression and Representation

Pixton is an online comic creator that offers children an opportunity to design their virtual characters (aka avatars) and create comics, stories, and narratives in fun and engaging ways. This type of tool allows clients the ability to explore different experiences with an enhanced sense of safety that is created by each child’s ability to choose their own comfort level with the emotional distance from their characters and the narrative they represent.

For example, some children are comfortable being direct and using their own character and experiences, while others might feel a need to create additional layers of emotional safety by writing about a different character or an imaginative experience. In addition, because it provides character templates and pre-made backgrounds, Pixton allows children to tell their stories without the artistic skills limitations that so often become a barrier to children’s self-expression.

Furthermore, Pixton offers a highly diverse and inclusive array of options for the creation of characters that enable all children to feel fully and accurately represented. Options include non-binary gender expression, assistive technology and mobility devices, culturally diverse articles of clothing, diverse religious settings and symbols, many skin tones, different body shapes, and unlimited options for family structures.

By using Pixton during virtual sessions, we quickly saw clients making choices to represent themselves as they are, as they hoped to be, or as they might fear to be perceived by others. One of our adolescent clients shared that he fears being perceived as feminine through designing his Pixton avatar to look feminine and choosing non-binary clothing. This client’s experience of representation led the way to further exploring his gender, sexuality, and self-identity as well as his social anxiety as it relates to his identity—a significant breakthrough in his treatment. One of our 5-year-old clients with significant mobility and physical limitations accurately represented herself using a wheelchair, and then created her avatar to look like a powerful superhero! Her experience of representation allowed her to process and explore both her limitations and her unique strengths and resources. 

Creating Your Virtual Therapy Setting to Foster Connection, Reflection, and Representation

In many cultures “mental health is often perceived as a harmonious balance between a person’s internal and external influences. Thus, a person is intrinsically linked to their environment and vice versa.” What you surround yourself with on your virtual screen matters! Put careful thought into designing your virtual setting in a way that will be engaging to your clients and to represent their internal world. Your background will set the tone for how connected, reflected, and represented your clients feel during their virtual sessions. Ensure that your camera is not facing a door, as doors represent possibility for disruption and might decrease your clients’ sense of containment, and therefore can hinder their sense of connection. 

Consider intentionally placing interactive toys like a Kimochi with a wide array of feelings that can be experienced at the same time, a Feisty Pet that shows anger, and books, posters, and toys that reflect meaningful representations of differences. Tools and toys for representation are available from stores such as Toy Like Me, Multicultural Classroom Materials & Diverse Toys for Preschool, Representation Matters in Toys, and Best Anti-Racist Toys for Kids.

Ensure that your background meets the unique needs of each of your clients by placing and even replacing items that could facilitate processing relevant experiences to each client’s individualized therapeutic goals. For a client who is working on understanding their anxiety, you might choose to place different toy models of the brain and a Worry Monster; for clients experiencing or recovering from medical trauma or anticipating an upcoming medical procedure, you can place toy models of the body or different body organs.

One of our 9-year-old clients who had been experiencing a chronic medical condition requiring continued procedures and several major surgeries, was excited to notice different models of the human body and share their experiences in detail, allowing them to explore the body with a sense of control and process their traumas.

Final Thoughts on Virtual Therapy

While it was a long and challenging journey to adjust our expressive and experiential therapeutic modalities to a virtual platform, we now advocate for its high effectiveness. In fact, it is currently often our preferred platform for treating children and families. Not only do we see the benefits of the virtual tools we are using with our clients, but when given the choice, it seems that even parents who were once the biggest skeptics are opting for virtual therapy because they appreciate the flexibility, ease of access and evidence of progress in their families. Virtual therapy is not going away, and neither is the need to foster connection, reflection, and representation in every therapeutic setting.

According to a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) study, the number of children aged 3 to 17 diagnosed with anxiety increased by 29 percent between 2016 and 2020, while those diagnosed with depression increased by 27 percent.

The situation worsened with the pandemic. And now, stressed students are hurting others and themselves.

There’s a dire need for safety in schools and other educational institutions — it’s time for strategies that help create safe learning environments.

A nationally representative survey of nearly 700 pre-K-12 teachers found that social-emotional learning (SEL) was a popular safety solution for 91 percent of all the teachers surveyed.

Social-emotional learning is a long-term solution for making students and adults more socially and emotionally well-rounded, but what makes it an effective and critical solution for pressing issues such as safety in learning institutions?

Social-emotional learning: Foregrounding emotional and mental safety

While safety is most visibly threatened by physical acts such as bullying and school violence, the roots of such threats take us to social, emotional, and structural issues that need to be addressed to effect change.

Consider some of the most common reasons for bullying. Bullies are often victims of bullying themselves, and as a result of their perception of what has happened to them, they frequently lack empathy.

In other cases, bullies don’t have any real friends, and they struggle to build relationships. To combat their loneliness, they seek social attention the wrong way. Moreover, bullies often lack psychological well-being, often comparing themselves to others, which leads to frustration and envy. As a result, they undermine other people with acts of aggression to level the playing field.

The core SEL competencies help develop good mental, emotional, and social health — three elements that can contribute immensely to dismantling safety issues such as bullying and creating safe learning spaces.

For one, social-emotional learning helps students understand how their decisions will impact others. It enables students to develop and demonstrate values such as compassion, empathy, respect, and intelligent behavior while making and navigating life decisions in and out of school. Increased empathy can reduce aggressive behavior, both verbal and physical, as well as bullying incidents.

SEL also fosters relationship building and a sense of belonging and inclusion. For example, when teachers implement identity-affirming and culturally-responsive SEL they create supportive and responsive learning climates that help prevent isolation and disengagement, and positively impact students’ behavior.

This is especially important among students who are systemically more prone to being marginalized and excluded from social groups due to their identities and backgrounds. If a school’s learning instruction reflects diverse cultural identities and personal experiences, it’s easier to develop a culture that supports the equitable treatment of all students, thereby helping to create a safer school environment.

Furthermore, SEL provides a reliable structure to the learning process, making it easier to promote a safe learning culture and address student experiences of anxiety, helplessness, and general insecurity.

Ultimately, social and emotional learning skills are crucial in connecting character and lifestyle decisions, helping to foreground and sustain emotional and social safety in learning institutions.

With SEL, we can foster emotional safety and mental wellness, and help reduce violence and risky behaviors among students. In so doing, we can nurture safe, positive learning environments, and equally important, harness the power of restorative practices.

Conflict and the power of restorative practices

Bullying, fighting, and violence may not have a simple or singular solution, but we can change the way we respond to these issues.

Instead of a discipline system that centers on punitive and exclusionary practices, which mostly seem to do more harm than good, it’s far more effective to have a restorative system.

Restorative practices encourage supportive and respectful behavior, placing the onus on an individual to be truly accountable for their actions and to make amends for any harm done to others as a result of those actions.

These practices can tackle a situation like bullying with sensitivity and understanding; in a way that improves outcomes for all individuals involved, instead of trying to serve one at the cost of another.

For example, instead of merely ostracizing and punishing a student who engages in problematic behavior, restorative practices seek to create a safe space in which the student can learn from their past unacceptable choices, understand their impact, and improve their ability to make better decisions.

Restorative practices have a student reflect on their conduct by addressing specific questions like: What choice did I make and how did it affect others? Is there another way I could have handled this situation? Would I make the same decision if I had a second chance, and why?

The idea behind restorative practices is that “when you know better, you can do better.”

Restorative practices have several benefits, including developing empathy and respect, fostering positive relationships, and improving decision-making. These are also some of the benefits of SEL. As such, SEL intersects with and can help strengthen restorative practices, which, in turn, enable students to make positive choices that lead to safer schools.

Per the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the likelihood of positive outcomes in high schools — including improved school and classroom climates — is especially high due to the alignment of restorative practices and SEL in secondary settings.

Granted, the problem of safety is a large and complex one, and building social and emotional skills alone won’t solve it, but social-emotional learning is a major step in the right direction that can have powerful consequences.

Related:
Teachers can’t keep up with the need for SEL
Parents are turning to schools for student mental health

While teachers know their students need help developing social emotional skills, they rarely have time or adequate training to focus on them in the classroom, according to a survey from ReadTheory, an edtech company that helps students build reading comprehension skills.

The survey of nearly 1,700 teachers offers insights into the challenges of implementing social emotional learning (SEL) programs in today’s tumultuous educational environment.

In the wake of the disruption of the pandemic, U.S. students are struggling. In 2021, the Center for Disease Control revealed that 37 percent of high school students reported poor mental health during the pandemic, while 44 percent said they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year.

And with billions of dollars in federal ESSER funds available, schools are investing in SEL programs to help students–and teachers–cope. According to Simba Information, spending for SEL instructional materials was $1.725 billion for the 2021-2022 school year. 

While 63 percent of teachers responding to ReadTheory’s survey believe mental wellness throughout the pandemic adversely affected instruction, a third reported they rarely or never teach SEL skills. Lack of time in the school day and lack of support from school leadership are among the challenges teachers said they faced when attempting to implement SEL.

“What teachers told us provides a roadmap for the ways that school leaders, families and communities can help support social emotional learning for all students,” said Ron Kirschenbaum, managing partner, ReadTheory.

Other key findings of the survey include:

• Eighty percent of teachers indicated that some, most, or all students need support with social emotional needs.
• Nearly 60 percent of teachers said that the pandemic impacted their students’ motivation to learn.
• Teachers’ mental wellness throughout the pandemic affected their performance. More than 60 percent told ReadTheory their mental wellness impacted instruction.
• More than 50 percent of teachers said they had not received any SEL training.
• The home-school connection is not happening when it comes to SEL. Nearly 50 percent of teachers said families do not have the resources to teach SEL at home.

Related:
Our district is battling a loneliness epidemic
Children’s mental health remains a major concern

This press release originally appeared online.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

Chicago Public Schools is monitoring students’ social media posts for signs they might engage in violence on campus or harm themselves so that school staff — and in some cases police — can intervene. 

A Canada-based company the district hired started scouring public posts for threats and “cries for help” last month. District leaders say the program is key in efforts to prevent violence and self-harm as the district responds to an uptick in school shootings nationally and in the number of local students expressing suicidal thoughts.

The Chicago program – called “Supporting Our Students” – is part of a national trend, as more districts have started paying contractors for social media monitoring services in recent years.

So far, there is no independent research or other evidence showing that student social media monitoring programs are effective in preventing violence and self-harm. In a social media space full of fake accounts, anonymous posts, and grandstanding, civil rights advocates say they worry these programs might needlessly invade students’ privacy and feed into stubborn discipline disparities facing some students, especially Black boys and other students of color. 

Cassie Creswell of the nonprofit Illinois Families for Public Schools says surveying students online could undermine the district’s most important tool for getting information that helps avert violence. 

“Kids have to have good relationships and trust with adults in their school communities, and that’s how we prevent stuff from happening,” she said. “Spying on kids is not how we do that.”

But Jadine Chou, the district’s safety and security chief, said the new program is not meant to punish students, and the district will involve police only when staff believe a post signals an imminent threat to safety. Rather, district officials say, the program aims to help students amid a pandemic-era rise in youth mental health challenges, as social media has come to play a key role in fomenting conflict and bullying on campus.

“This is not about getting children in trouble,” Chou said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “This is about getting children support.”

Chicago Public Schools piloted a similar social media monitoring program in the mid-2010s. A University of Chicago study deemed the effort promising, with evidence that it helped reduce student misconduct incidents and suspensions. But data also showed Black and male students were more likely to get flagged for concerning behavior, and some advocates voiced concerns about the involvement of a Chicago Police Department school gang unit. 

New social media program draws on pilot’s lessons

In 2020, Chicago Public Schools won a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to launch “Support Our Students,” through a federal program titled STOP School Violence.

It wasn’t until this April that the district put out a notice seeking proposals from companies to monitor student social media for “worrisome online behavior,” such as threats, suicidal ideation, and references to drugs, weapons, or gang activity. The document said the district was especially concerned about an almost 60% increase in reports of suicidal ideation in students over the previous school year, with about 300 such reports received since August 2021. It planned to spend $450,000 on the program over three years. 

Two companies, Safer Schools Together and GoGuardian, submitted proposals. The district selected SST, a firm based in Canada, with U.S. headquarters in Washington state. Officials said the company offered both a lower cost and better methodology for flagging concerning online behavior. In August, the school board approved an agreement with SST for up to $161,400 over 13 months.

Related:
Parents are turning to schools for student mental health
Children’s mental health remains a major concern

“Supporting Our Students” comes on the heels of a pre-pandemic student social monitoring pilot program called “Connect & Redirect to Respect,” which was also supported by a federal grant from the Department of Justice. 

That program involved random keyword searches of public social media profiles. In some cases, officers with CPD’s Gang School Safety Team met with students at their schools to discuss troubling posts. Staff referred students to mentoring, after-school, and summer programs and other services.

A report by the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab compared outcomes for students at schools participating in the program — about two dozen elementary and high schools, most of them on the city’s West and South sides — and for those at a control group of schools with similar demographics. The study found students at participating schools were at a lower risk of becoming a shooting victim, though the difference was not statistically significant. 

It did show these schools had significantly fewer misconduct incidents and suspensions and better attendance, while students were not any more likely to be arrested. Data in the report also shows that students flagged through the program were more likely to be Black and much more likely to be male than students referred for intervention by school staff. 

The researchers interviewed teachers and administrators who said many conflicts at school start out on social media, and some educators more informally monitor posts in hopes of warding off trouble on campus. 

But reporting by ProPublica and WBEZ highlighted concerns by advocates and experts who questioned the practice of pulling students into meetings with police officers based on information gleaned from a program that students and their families didn’t know about. 

The new program will be different in some key ways, officials said. The district’s earlier pilot initially used a software to flag posts, but, Chou said, “The algorithm did not catch a lot of the situations we are most concerned for.” 

SST’s proposal and the district’s contract with the company say it will use technology to scan posts, but Chou said it will ultimately rely on trained people to review them and flag any content as concerning. 

Thanks to SST’s involvement, the district said in a statement, the collection of information off social media will operate “at arm’s length” from the district, ensuring that it collects only data relevant to school safety. 

The company will also offer guidance to school safety teams on responding when it flags concerning posts. It will work closely with the district’s Office of Social and Emotional Learning and school-level behavioral health teams to intervene with students and engage their parents. The Chicago Police Department will play a more limited role this time, in keeping with a broader rethinking of the district’s relationship with police. 

As part of a district initiative, a growing number of high schools have stopped stationing police officers on campus in the past two years and used the money for restorative justice and other programs. But there will be times police will have to be involved, Chou said. 

“If there’s a gun in your video,” Chou said, “I’m going to need to pull in the police.”

Like the earlier program, only publicly posted information will be monitored and collected, and the district and company won’t “friend” or follow students. The contract with SST spells out some measurable goals for the program: decreasing serious infraction, suspensions, and expulsions by 10% each, and student arrests by 5%.

Chou says social media threats and bullying are top of mind for students and parents she’s spoken with about school safety. But the program will be one tool in a much broader district safety strategy, Chou said — with SST serving as “a partner in case something gets missed.”

“When we have strong relationships with students and families, that’s where we get our best information,” she said. 

Software ‘spying’ is no substitute for student support

Arseny Acosta, a junior at DeVry University Advantage Academy and an advocate with youth group Good Kids Mad City, said many students want to take a more active part in safeguarding safety on campus and beyond. She pointed to the group’s key role in a Dyett High School for the Arts restorative justice program and a social media “peace pledge” it penned as part of its “Peacebook” anti-violence proposal.

But monitoring students’ social media feels invasive, she said. It could add to mistrust among Black and Latino students, who feel they are still held to a higher discipline standard, Acosta said.

“This idea will most likely backfire, and make students more distrustful of CPS,” Acosta said. “CPS should be empowering and employing their student youth to create safety networks.”  

Some district officials have said that programs that monitor student social media for keywords produce an excess of “noisy data” that school staff have to sift through to find any credible threats, said Elizabeth Laird of the nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology. 

Though some companies have touted case studies or data they have collected, she said, “There is no independent research or data that shows this service works — that it’s an effective strategy to keep students safe.” 

Some of those questions about effectiveness were rekindled by the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. That district had a social media monitoring program in place, but it apparently did not flag threatening social media posts by the shooter.

Meanwhile, advocates are concerned that these programs might disproportionately zero in on certain student groups, including students of color and LGBT students, and chill students’ free expression online. Districts have not been transparent enough about these programs and how they work, Baird said. The federal government recently cautioned school districts and other entities about using digital surveillance software that might exacerbate racial and other disparities. 

SST didn’t respond to an interview request, but on its site, the organization says it has “a proven record” of helping schools across North America reduce the risk of student violence. It says open-source social media posts it has flagged triggered “successful school/community interventions and full scale police investigations and prosecution.” 

The company’s proposal to the district, obtained by Chalkbeat, offers relatively few specifics about these successes. The proposal says its Worrisome Online Behavior reports are “well-received by our clients,” and quotes a safety official with the Lynwood Unified School District in California who says the reports have been an “essential tool” in ensuring school safety. The company has provided the reports to 80 districts in the past two years, consulting with districts on 1,600 interventions, its proposal says.

Under its contract with Chicago Public Schools, SST is required to submit biweekly reports on the number of “worrisome online behaviors” it flagged, the number of students involved in them, and the number of students receiving interventions as a result. 

But in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Chalkbeat, the district said these reports will not be made public. They contain “highly sensitive student information and outcries,” the district said, and their release would constitute a “clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” under FOIA and the state’s Student Online Personal Protection Act. 

Creswell, with Illinois Families for Public Schools, worked on the latest version of that state law.  She says she wants to know more about the specific circumstances under which information gleaned from the program will be shared with law enforcement. The district should be doing more to get word of the program to students and their families, and better explain how it will safeguard against racial and income disparities. 

Edward Vogel of the Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based nonprofit effort to advocate for digital rights, said he believes the district’s interest in supporting students is genuine. But young people often engage in grandstanding on social media, and he questioned the wisdom of tasking people who have no connection to students or their school communities with reviewing posts.   

“Social media is a tool that people in gangs use, but there are also lots of young people who say things on social media that are meaningless,” Vogel said. “It’s a murky area to use for assessing threats.”  

Given that many student accounts are private or don’t use students’ real names, Vogel said, how will SST even go about finding the right accounts to monitor? 

The district said that it’s paramount that the program not perpetuate racial disparities. SST staff have received implicit bias training “to ensure that this effort is not targeting any specific groups.”

Chou stressed the district is not turning over any student names to SST; the company searches instead for references to the district and its schools. Flagged accounts often don’t use students’ real names, so district and school staff work together to identify students who might need help, such as counseling, mentoring, and other support. 

She said the program has already had “a small number of successes where we have been able to intervene and support students,” though she declined to share any additional details. Chou said the district might be able to share aggregate data on the program’s results that better protects student privacy after the effort has been in place longer.   

Chou said the district has worked to get the word out about the program. The district has not sent emails or letters specifically about the program, but a back-to-school email from district CEO Pedro Martinez included a mention of it on a list of school safety measures. 

Chou also briefly mentions the program in a video posted on a revamped Office of Safety and Security website, in which she implores students and families to alert their schools or the district if they come across threats or other troubling content online.

“I want everyone to know,” Chou told Chalkbeat about the monitoring program. “This is not a secret.” 

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education.

School counselors and social workers, teachers, and administrators have always been integral to a parent’s support network. This is particularly true for children who struggle in class and have trouble accessing their curriculum.  Collaborative communication between a school and parents is critical for ensuring positive student outcomes.

Although clearly an issue before the pandemic, the pandemic has increased our collective awareness of children’s mental health issues and schools’ role in addressing those challenges. At the height of the pandemic, we were aware of the toll that the effects of the pandemic were taking on the nation’s school children, but we were functioning in a survival mode. As we emerge from this survival mode, it is clear that our school-age children are in crisis.

According to an October 30, 2022, Wall Street Journal article, “A mental-health crisis among children and teens that had been brewing for years worsened as routines were disrupted in the pandemic and many kids faced isolation and loss.”

Parents Looking to Schools for Mental Health Resources

Parents are increasingly turning to schools for support. According to a new nationwide survey of more than 1,100 parents of children between the ages of five and 18, 83% of surveyed parents said schools and healthcare providers should do more to provide better mental health services.

This is not surprising – parents have historically turned to schools for support when it comes to finding resources for children who struggle in the classroom and at home.

Related:
Teletherapy’s crucial role in reaching remote students
Children’s mental health remains a major concern

COVID-19 safety guidance has been relaxed and schools have returned to in-person learning, but it’s not yet time to breathe a sigh of relief. Many schools continue to encounter challenges in effectively serving their students, faced with special education staff shortages, backlogs of evaluations, and a youth mental health crisis.

Before the pandemic, a complex web of restrictions limited the ability of schools to leverage online services. From professional associations to state licensure boards, virtual therapy and evaluation services were discouraged or prohibited. In some cases, new graduates were prevented from obtaining their necessary practice hours through remote work. Many states imposed extensive barriers to allowing a licensed therapist to serve students across a state border, slowing down the ability to serve students through teletherapy.

These boards and associations then moved quickly to lift restrictions and clarify guidance to prioritize serving children in need. But as often happens in times that call for rapid action, these changes were made with a short-term mentality. Most of the removal of barriers to teleservices was done through temporary waivers and allowances, rather than taking action to permanently include remote and online services as a solution to serving the growing number of students with special education or mental health needs. These decision makers did not imagine the long-lasting impact of the pandemic, and they did not anticipate the evolution of educational services to a more technology-forward model.

Today, more than two years after most of these waivers and temporary orders were activated, many are in limbo, and some have expired. Without permanent policy, schools are finding themselves right back where they started, with staffing shortages that limit them from providing all of the services their students need, and the inability to turn to online services to help relieve the pressure.

Related:
How teletherapy enables access to special education services
How staff absences impact educator burnout

Although structured social-emotional learning (SEL) has been around since the mid-90s, schools’ focus on SEL has skyrocketed following the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on education. As remote learning exacerbated feelings of isolation and uncertainty, and behavioral and mental health issues emerged, many educators shifted away from attainment goals to helping students cope and connect in an environment that suddenly lacked regular social interactions, academic expectations and daily structure. SEL then became a foundational piece of the return to in-person learning and, by many accounts, remains an integral part of student needs a year into post-shut down recovery.

According to a report from Tyton Partners and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), district spending on SEL programming between the 2019–20 and 2020–21 academic years grew from $530 million to $765 million. SEL also received a $160 million funding boost in the FY2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act earlier this year. Educators are investing in SEL on an individual level, too. Based on data from DonorsChoose, reports indicate that donation requests for supplies that help students develop SEL skills and improve mental health have almost doubled since 2020.

While SEL and mental health initiatives are different, when delivered as part of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), SEL can play a significant role in promoting responsive relationships, emotionally safe environments and skills development that improve or mitigate mental health issues. In fact, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states that SEL screening instruments can be used to both help standardize the identification of anxiety concerns and help facilitate early intervention.

As more districts integrate SEL into their curricula and expand SEL practices into their secondary schools, the collection and management of such data play an essential role in measuring student progress and program efficacy. That’s especially important because, as the Tyton Partners/CASEL report notes, quality in the SEL marketplace may not keep pace with demand. And overarchingly, an easily navigable student data insights platform gives educators more time to focus on how they’re incorporating SEL in their classrooms.

Visualizing data improves SEL strategies

SEL should not exist in a vacuum. It serves as a component of MTSS. Your data platform should allow educators to not only track and record SEL elements alongside academic performance, attendance, and behavior, but to also to visualize them side-by-side within a single report. Each of these factors individually and collectively will influence students’ social and emotional well-being. A complete portrait of a student, instead of a corner of the picture, gives educators the context they need to assign or adjust learning and supports across all areas of a student’s life.

Next, your platform should allow educators to drill into the details, preferably in one place, given the vast array of available SEL tools. Some tools may be free, while others come at a cost or as part of a larger assessment suite. A data insights platform flexible enough to gather information from all your SEL tools via integration, file upload or manual score entry broadens context while saving educators valuable time.

Related:
4 engaging strategies that promote student SEL
SEL is critical–but teachers rarely have time to address it

Growing up, I was the class vice-president; the de facto leader of every group project ever assigned; elementary and high school valedictorian; and the captain of my sports teams. I met all the stereotypes of a typical, Type A student. Yet, it never crossed my mind that when I grew up, I could be a CEO.

I’m not alone. 

According to Harvard Business Review 5.3 percent of large U.S. companies have CEOs named John compared with 4.1 percent that have CEOs who are women. Firms with CEOs named David, at 4.5 percent, also outnumber women-led businesses. More than half of college graduates are women, yet, less than 8 percent of the fortune 500 CEOs are women. The stats speak for themselves. 

Was I a victim of these statistics? Not necessarily. Upon reflection, it’s probably because I was extremely shy and struggled with interpersonal communications. While I may have checked the technical skill boxes, I fell short on the ‘soft’ skills. Skills, say the lady leaders you’re about to hear from, that are critical to leadership success. But as I learned from my peers, leaders are likely not born leaders, they grow into the role. Which means every one of us as parents, teachers, and mentors can help better prepare young girls, both mentally and technically, for leadership roles.

Tricia Han, the CEO of MyFitnessPal, attributes her foray into leadership to a conversation with a friend, who also happened to be a talent recruiter–a woman, and person of color– who encouraged her to apply for a leadership role. Tricia hesitated citing lack of experience, until the friend said, “People like me need to see people like you in those leadership roles so we know it’s possible.” 

Tricia remembers thinking, “It’s sometimes easier to be brave when you realize you’re doing it for others.”

Tricia doesn’t know if she would have raised her hand for leadership had she not had that impetus.  Born in the United States to immigrant parents, Tricia knew the expectation was for her to be a doctor or a lawyer. She was organized, a strong communicator, and creative. Her parents remained open-minded when she majored in English Literature. Tricia says, “One of the great things about college is that the curriculum allowed me to explore a lot of different areas. While I ended up spending my career in technology product management, English Literature ended up being a great training ground because you’re trying to understand motivation, personalities, and you need to be able to communicate a story as a CEO. Those are absolutely critical skills.”

Related:
Powerful strategies to motivate girls in STEM
Why girls need more STEM role models

It’s been said, “If a child can do advanced math, speak three languages, or receive top grades, but can’t manage their emotions, practice conflict resolution, or handle stress, none of that other stuff is really going to matter.”

As an educator, I’ve witnessed the truth of this statement firsthand. Whether they’re pursuing a future career or simply playing on a school sports team, it’s imperative that students know how to work together with the people around them. But lessons on social-emotional learning aren’t typically found in a classroom syllabus. So, how do we as educators actively foster these qualities in our students?   

SEL skills can be implemented into any content area; it just takes a little intentionality and planning. By including aspects of SEL in hands-on, inquiry-based activities, we can help students develop these skills organically. Here are just a few science lessons where we intentionally taught social-emotional skills:          

Balloon Rockets: The Balloon Rockets investigation is an engineering design investigation where students are challenged to design a lightweight rocket that is able to carry the greatest payload possible. This task can prove difficult for students and requires careful planning and collaboration to accomplish, because of this, Relationship Skills is a great area to reflect on after this lesson. Have students reflect on their experience through a Collaboration Y Chart to explore how teamwork can impact their success. 

Lights Out: The Lights Out investigation is an engineering application that is completed after students complete the Light the Bulb experiment. Students learn not only how to light the light bulb, then use that knowledge to design, build and test a flashlight within set criteria and constraints. Because this is a sequence of investigations that could be run a few days in the class, students may be at different spots throughout the series and self-management is a very important skill to teach during more sustained inquiry experiences. Have students use Work Logs to keep track of what steps need to be completed as well as when each task is complete. 

Related:
SEL is critical–but teachers rarely have time to address it
4 engaging strategies that promote student SEL

As the days of summer dwindle, many parents are looking at the fast-approaching new academic year with a sense of uncertainty and unease. A nationwide teacher shortage has left schools scrambling to fill critical vacancies in a matter of weeks. And tensions over mask-wearing may soon return to a fever pitch as a rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations is already leading some public school districts to announce a planned reinstatement of controversial mandates.

Last year, as educators across the country did their best to transition children back to in-person learning environments amid the ongoing COVID pandemic, school districts nationwide saw a startling uptick in reported student misbehavior, ranging from in-class tantrums to incidents of outright physical violence. An overwhelming majority of public schools also reported marked increases in disrespectful behavior towards teachers, as well as chronic absenteeism, during the 2021-22 year. 

Much of this can be interpreted as the emotional fallout from the schedule disruptions and personal losses many children experienced due to the pandemic. Prolonged social isolation and family instability during important formative years has led to increased anxiety, depression, and even suicide ideation among kids of all ages. Late last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association, declared this decline in youth mental health a national emergency.

But these disciplinary challenges, regardless of the cause, do not simply affect the offending child. Rather, they can trigger a ripple effect that threatens to distract and demoralize otherwise well-behaved students, adding to an unwieldy workload for already-exhausted teachers. 

There needs to be a focus on creating calmer, kinder interactions in the classroom that will help mitigate some of the psychological trauma kids have experienced. Teachers need a more productive alternative to punitive measures like detention and suspension when dealing with disruptive or disrespectful students. Placing a greater emphasis on children’s social-emotional learning may be the solution to creating a safer, happier educational climate for everyone.

Education leaders are beginning to move on from COVID-related safety measures, and are instead focusing on managing mental health and violence on campus, according to a new report from Rave Mobile Safety.

Rave’s report,  2022 Crisis Communication and Safety in Education Survey, surveyed more than 400 K-12 employees and more than 380 higher education staffers.

The past two years of COVID-19 restrictions have been a challenging time for students, staff, faculty and parents/guardians. Campus leaders are concerned about how the lingering effects of the pandemic will impact school communities going forward, especially if the right resources and safety measures are not put in place.

Key findings include:

• Student mental health is the top safety concern for the 2022-2023 school year for K-12 respondents (61%) and the second-highest concern for higher education respondents (59%).
• Faculty and staff mental health is the third-highest safety concern for respondents from both K-12 schools (52%) and higher education institutions (44%).
• Concerns about active assailants on campus rose dramatically year-over-year for both K-12 respondents (+14%) and higher education respondents (+15%).
• K-12 survey respondents also shared increased concern about cyberbullying compared to 2021 (+12%), while higher education administrators expressed increased anxiety regarding crime (+20%) and severe weather events (+19%).
• To address these concerns, respondents on both the K-12 (43%) and higher education (39%) fronts are investing more heavily in mental health resources.
• For crisis communications, K-12 respondents indicated room for improvement in reaching staff (23%), and students and parents/guardians (26%), while higher education respondents had less concern in reaching staff (16%), and students and parents/guardians (15%).

K-12 Schools

The pandemic brought on periods of isolation and stress to students everywhere, bringing mental health concerns to the forefront of challenges for K-12 schools. According to the survey, two of the top three safety concerns for respondents are student (61%) and faculty/staff (52%) mental health. Anxiety around potential situations involving an active assailant saw a major rise (+14%), as did cyberbullying (+12%).

In this week’s episode of Innovations in Education, hosted by Kevin Hogan:

• 3 ways chatbots can support mental health in schools
• How AI chatbots can help students navigate college admissions
• When will bots be in the classroom?

As your education partner, we want to help you through this process by offering a concise guide which outlines the recent stimulus bills, grant funding as well as additional local resources you can leverage to support the mental health and well-being of your school community.

Learn how educators can add Social Emotional Learning (SEL) strategies to literacy instruction in this eBook, Social Emotional Learning Opportunities