Plan Components
PSU Improvement Plan for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and School Mental Health (SMH)
(per NC SBE Policy SHLT-003)
Each K-12 public school unit (PSU) shall adopt and implement a plan for promoting student mental health and well-being and for assessing and improving upon the effectiveness of supports for the mental and social-emotional health and substance use needs of its students and staff by July 1, 2021.
Note: PSUs whose District MTSS teams have completed the Core SEL Practices course and developed a Core SEL implementation plan around instruction, curriculum, and environment will be well situated to develop a compliant local improvement plan for promoting student health and well-being by July 1, 2021, per SHLT-003 requirements. Visit NC SEL Implementation
In addition, it is strongly recommended that a local needs assessment and resource mapping be conducted prior to completing the improvement plan below. Completion of the SHAPE Quality Assessment and/or use of the needs assessment and resource mapping tools will provide the data needed for the targeted improvement planning below.
Starting with all 2025 submissions, the new template below, is now required.
Plan Template document available for download at the bottom of the page.
PSU Compelling Why & Vision for SEL and School Mental Health Improvement
Content Questions
What data did you use to determine your strengths & needs? Describe what your strengths & needs are. (examples of data: FAM-S, YRBS, School Health Services Report, Healthy Active Children Report, PowerSchool/Infinite Campus, Say Something, SHAPE, ECATS, District Report Cards) |
What are your existing PSU SEL/ MH prevention initiatives through instruction, curriculum, and environment? *May Refer to your Social, Emotional, and Behavioral (SEB) Plan |
How are you building and aligning infrastructure? What is your training plan? Do you have a suicide risk referral protocol? Are you increasing SISP staffing ratios? If so, how? What relevant stakeholders are engaged in SMH work to strengthen SEL and SMH prevention? |
How do you collect data for the SISP annual report? How is the data monitored? |
How do you align SEL & SMH with academic objectives? NC SEL Standards Mapping Documents Webinar Series Recordings: Integrating SEL into the Content Areas |
How are you incorporating physical activity into the classroom? Describe by grade categories of elementary, middle, & high school. |
How will you evaluate your SMH efforts? |
What are your SMH efforts for early intervention? How do you identify: How do you provide intervention for at-risk or struggling students? Describe the annual review of: Describe any other efforts. |
What are your SMH efforts for treatment, referral, and re-entry? How do you improve: Describe any other efforts. |
Attach your detailed training plan if not detailed above. |
Plan Template document available for download at the bottom of the page.
Memorandum of Understanding
In addition, each PSU shall offer to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Local Management Entity/Managed Care Organization (LME/MCO), and/or, to the extent deemed appropriate by the PSU, with local mental health and substance use providers serving the geographic area in which the PSU is located. The MOU should address the parties’ respective roles and relationships and how the parties will coordinate referral, treatment, and follow-up to individual students. This requirement is not intended to impose on PSUs any obligation or responsibility to provide, or liability for failure to provide, referral, treatment, follow-up, or other services beyond those already required by state or federal law.
School Mental Health Initiative MOA/MOU Samples
Additional MOU sample available for download at the bottom of the page.
Suicide Risk Protocol
To ensure timely and effective response to suicide threats, PSUs will adopt a suicide risk referral protocol that is provided to school personnel who work with students in grades 6-12 (required) and K-5 (recommended) and includes both of the following:
- Guidelines on the identification of students at risk of suicide.
- Procedures and referral sources that address actions that should be taken to address students identified in accordance with this subdivision.