This month in SEL: Common Sense Education releases a new Social & Emotional Learning Toolkit for Educators, Democrats approve millions in landmark federal funding for SEL, Panorama Education on the links between chronic absenteeism and SEL, how technology is helping to transition social-emotional learing out of its silo, and more!

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Democrats Approve Millions in Federal Funding for SEL in Bill

In what’s been described as a landmark investment from the federal government in social-emotional learning, the House of Representatives approved a spending bill last month that included $260 million in funding for what it calls “whole child” initiatives within the Department of Education. The bill now faces a big test in the Senate.

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Unpacking the Connections Between SEL and Attendance [VIDEO]

Attendance is a critical metric for schools to focus their attention. More than one in seven students are chronically absent from school, and recent data show that absenteeism is on the rise.

In this short video, Dr. Tara Chiatovich — data scientist at Panorama Education — presents the connections between attendance and social-emotional learning and discusses potential steps to improve attendance.

Watch The Video >

Common Sense Media Releases a New Educator Toolkit for Social & Emotional Learning

From edtech tools that inspire SEL to digital citizenship curriculum ideas to SEL tools for families, this new set of resources includes a plethora of options for educators and parents to learn more about character strengths and introduce actionable activities with their children. The Toolkit also includes classroom-ready resources within six character-strength-based categories (e.g., curosity, humility & gratitude, emapthy & compassion), including apps, games and websites that can promote SEL and inspire positivity.

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How Ed-Tech Tools Are Advancing the Implementation of SEL in Classrooms

“The industry now realizes that technology, of course, can be a bridge, helping students and teachers to connect. It can even help us to connect with ourselves. It’s no longer the case that tech is competing with humans to build these skills, but rather is complementing our efforts. The question for edtech developers has become: How does SEL look when it’s built into technology as one of the core values in the design cycle of product development, with the user experience as top priority?”

Read More >

Other Headlines:

• Whole Child Education Has Come Far. It Still Has a Long Way to Go. (via EdSurge)

• What does ‘career readiness’ look like in middle school? (via The Hechinger Report)

• Ecstatic Founder on Empowering School Counselors & Psychologists (via Inside SEL)

• Educators Don’t Agree on What Whole Child Education Means (via EdSurge)

• A New Model for Competency-Based, Trauma-Informed Education (via Inside SEL)

• Teachers Support SEL, But Say Students in Distress Strain Their Skills (via EdWeek)