Green Dot Public Schools National Advocates to Senate Appropriations Committee to Prioritize Funding for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Green Dot Public Schools National Signs On to Letter to Prioritize Funding for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
102 National Organizations, 17 State Organizations, and 18 Local Organizations Signed On To Support Funding for SEL Programs

July 9, 2021 (LOS ANGELES) -- Green Dot Public Schools National signed on to the below letter to advocate for prioritizing funding for social and emotional (SEL) initiatives in the FY 2022 Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education appropriations bill. SEL programs ensure children, students, educators, and families, in school as well as in out-of-school time, have the social and emotional development and supports necessary to succeed. 102 National Organizations, 17 State Organizations, and 18 Local Organizations signed on in support.

June 24, 2021

The Honorable Patty Murray
Chairwoman
Senate Appropriations Committee
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Chairwoman
House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies

The Honorable Roy Blunt
Ranking Member
Senate Appropriations Committee
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies

The Honorable Tom Cole
Ranking Member
House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

Dear Chairwomen Murray and DeLauro and Ranking Members Blunt and Cole:

On behalf of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Committee for Children, and the 102 national organizations; 17 state organizations; and 18 local organizations focused on the advancement of evidence-based social emotional learning (SEL) signed below, we urge you to continue building on the historic funding levels for children and education provided by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act by prioritizing SEL funding in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget. As the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittees work on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 appropriations bill, we urge you to fund programs that support SEL at least at $784 million.

Educators, child advocates, mental health professionals, and other community members who together serve and support millions of young people and adults, are depending on continuing support beyond the crises of COVID-19 and racial inequity. This school year has been like none other and our recovery will require a commitment at the highest levels of government to build the social and emotional skills needed to help keep students safe and to overcome the traumas occurring both inside and outside of school. Our students, teachers, families, and communities have dealt with unexpected loss, grief, and instability that has impacted our collective well- being in profound ways. Additionally, students and educators are reliant on SEL skills to help address learning loss and increase academic outcomes for students who are now further behind than ever before. Adults will need to utilize these skills as they reenter the workforce in-person, reorienting to different styles of collaboration and communication. In historically and systemically marginalized communities, the impact of the crises has been multi-layered, significant, and demonstrative of the coming needs across all of America.

While funding already appropriated has been crucial to alleviating many of the traumas brought upon communities, incorporating SEL into the foundation of education will require sustained funding. Ensuring the FY 2022 budget includes such funding will go a long way to helping communities normalize SEL as part of their recovery efforts.

To support the growth of SEL programs, we are requesting $784 million to support the following programs:

$170 million within the Education Innovation and Research program for grants for evidence-based, field-initiated innovations that address student social, emotional, and cognitive needs.
$25 million dedicated within the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant program for teacher professional development and pathways into teaching that provide a strong foundation in child development and learning, including skills for implementing SEL strategies.
$25 million dedicated within the School Safety National Activities program to make schools safer and increase positive school climate by prioritizing SEAs and LEAs whose applications describe how they will develop, adopt and teach social and emotional skills in awarding grants to pertaining to school safety.
$443 million for Full-Service Community Schools to provide comprehensive services and expand evidence-based models that meet the holistic needs of children, families, and communities to match the President’s budget request.
$121 million for Project AWARE to expand the capacity for mental health agencies to support mental health resources in schools and connect school-aged youth and their families to needed services including SEL.

SEL is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. A review of more than 200 studies found that programs that teach social and emotional skills have yielded significant positive effects on student attitudes about self, others, and school, and have improved school safety. Overall, these programs “are associated with positive results such as improved attitudes about the self and others, increased prosocial behavior, lower levels of problem behaviors and emotional distress, and improved academic performance.”i According to a 2017 meta-analysis on the effects of SEL, students participating in SEL programs demonstrated a 6% increase in high school graduation rates and an 11% increase in college graduation rates.ii

SEL programs have an average of $11 returned for each dollar invested into their programs and the impact of these kinds of investments lasts over time.iii To ensure that all students have access to the social and emotional development and supports they need to succeed, we ask that you provide at least $784 million in FY 2022 for these programs.

Sincerely,

National Organizations
Active Minds
Afterschool Alliance
Alliance for Excellent Education America Succeeds
American Art Therapy Association American Camp Association American Federation of Teachers
American Psychological Association America's Promise Alliance
American School Counselor Association Blankets of Hope
Boys and Girls Club of America
Brayhaus
Camp Kindness Counts
Center for the Promotion of Social and Emotional Learning Center for Responsive Schools Centervention
Changing Perspectives
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL
Chiefs for Change
Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully
Coffee & Cocoa
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) Communities In Schools
Council of Administrators of Special Education
CREATE for Education
Crew Supply Co.
EDGE Consulting Partners
EduCare Foundation
Education Development Center
EduColor
Edusolve
GetPsychedSports.org
Girls Inc.
GiveThx
Global Game Changers Children’s Education Initiative, Inc.
Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley
Green Dot Public Schools National
Harmony SEL
Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.®
Inner Explorer
INSIGHTS Intervention, LLC
Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement
Kelvin Education
Kickboard
Kinful, Inc.
Learning Forward
LEGO Systems, Inc.
Lions Clubs International
Marketing the Social Good
MarkWillows Foundation
Mindful Schools
Moving Forward Institute
National Afterschool Association
National Association of Elementary School Principals National Association of School Psychologists National Association of Secondary School Principals National Association of Social Work
National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) National Education Association
National Healthcare Company
National PTA
National Superintendents Roundtable
National Urban League
National Youth Leadership Council
Next Level Students/ The Jeremy Anderson Group PATHS Program LLC
Peekapak Inc.
Prescott College & TLI
Pure Edge, Inc.
Read to Lead
Resilience, Inc.
Resonant Education
Respectful Ways Social Emotional Learning Program Rhithm
Sandy Hook Promise
School Culture and Climate Initiative
School Social Work Association of America SchoolCulture and Climate Initiative
SEL Consulting Collaborative
SEL Launchpad
SEL4US
Six Seconds
Social Decision Making
Southeastern School Behavioral Health Community Special Olympics International
SuperBetter
SuperDville.com
Teach For America
Teach Plus
Teaching Empathy Institute
The Core Project
The Relationship Foundation
The Social Express
The Spark Initiative
The Urban Assembly
Transformative Educational Leadership
Turnaround for Children
Wayfinder
Whole Child Educational Services
Wings for Kids
WWA
xSEL Labs
YMCA of the USA

State Organizations
Buffalo Hanover Montrose Schools Carver Public Schools
EDMO®
Garden State Esports
Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers (HEART) Massachusetts School Psychologist’s Association
NAMI South Carolina
SEL Educators
SEL4CA
SEL4NJ
SEL4PA
SEL4OR
SEL4SC
Social and Emotional Learning Alliance for Ohio Social-Emotional Learning Alliance for Texas (SEL4TX.org) South Carolina PTA
University of Virginia

Local Organizations
American Renaissance School
Center for Social-Emotional Learning Communities In Schools of the Midlands Dream a World Education
Early Childhood Specialties LLC
Effective Youth Solutions
Grinnell-Newburg Community School District Holly Area Schools
Marquette-Alger Technical Middle College NJ Teacher 2 Teacher, LLC.
Positive Archer Solutions
Rainbow Days, Inc.
SAIL CoLab, LLC
Social & Emotional Wellness Initiative
Soul Shoppe Programs
Sound Supports
Wyman
Young Women's Project

Endnotes

iDurlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82, 405-432.

iiTaylor,R.D.,Oberle,E.,Durlak,J.A.,&Weissberg,R.P.(2017).Promotingpositiveyouthdevelopmentthrough school-based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88(4).

iii Belfield,C.,Bowden,B.,Klapp,A.,Levin,H.,Shand,R.,&Zander,S.TheEconomicValueofSocialand Emotional Learning. New York, NY: Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education. Teachers College, Columbia University. https://www.casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SEL-Revised.pdf