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National SEL Collaborative Highlights CalHOPE

CASEL Shares “Must-Read” Articles About Social and Emotional Learning

Diagram: Continuous feedback allows partners to build capacity, support implementation, implement approaches, and connect

Continuous feedback between partners (the state planning team, county offices of education, districts/schools, and students/families) means that CalHOPE is able to augment the capacity for county offices of education to support SEL implementation in each region, which in turn helps districts and schools deliver localized SEL interventions.

Posted December 5, 2024

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has highlighted five “must-read” articles from the SEL Journal in a recent blog post—including one co-authored by the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) about the CalHOPE Student Support initiative and its efforts to guide educators, scholars, and policymakers on improving SEL implementation in public schools across a state. The article was published on ScienceDirect, a collection of peer-reviewed scholarly literature:

“CalHOPE’s success underscores the importance of a systemic and equity-centered approach to SEL—particularly during crises,” said Mai Xi Lee, SCOE Director of Social-Emotional Learning. “By fostering partnerships between the education and health sectors, we’ve demonstrated how large-scale coordination and local customization can address the well-being of school communities. This successful model can be emulated by other states when integrating SEL into education.”

About CalHOPE

CalHOPE was launched in 2020 as a California response to the unprecedented mental health challenges facing students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded through FEMA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), CalHOPE positioned social and emotional learning (SEL)—the process of developing and learning to use social and emotional competencies in equitable, supportive environments—as a framework to address the strain on students and educators while complementing mental health services. The initiative brought together multiple stakeholders, including the California Department of Education (CDE), county offices of education, and local schools, to strengthen SEL capacity statewide, reaching more than six million students. SCOE is one of five lead partners.

Central to CalHOPE’s approach is a commitment to equity and inclusion, guided by the principles of transformative SEL (tSEL). This framework empowers educators to address systemic inequities, co-design learning environments with marginalized communities, and foster social and emotional competencies in both adults and students.