What is SEL?
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
Irvine Unified School District is committed to embedding the CASEL 5 Social Emotional Competencies within academic instruction so every student can increase prosocial skills, executive function capacity, empathy, and enhances higher level critical thinking skills. In the Spring of 2020 IUSD published essential standards informed by the CASEL 5 Competencies. These essential standards will be a focus of instruction to support students’ integration back into a safe and comprehensive school site setting.
Educators shoulder significant responsibility in helping young people understand, process, and heal from these momentous events. But in order to effectively support students, adults will need to feel connected, supported, valued, and capable of taking on the challenges ahead.
SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.
Click Here to print or download the five core competencies of social-emotional learning.
