Educator Resources

NC SEL Resources

North Carolina Resources are organized by grants, online courses, planning tools, projects and pilots, and additional resources.  All listed resources are free.

Online Courses

Core SEL Practices Online Course - This course is designed for both school-level and district-level teams. Course registration is through the District/Charter MTSS Coordinator. It is recommended that course participants are linked and working closely with their respective School or District MTSS/Leadership Team. This course walks teams through the following objectives: (1) Create readiness for Core social and emotional learning (SEL) by building and affirming background knowledge regarding core SEL practices, developing the what and why for SEL implementation and preparing for successful SEL implementation, (2) Make connections to social and emotional learning and NCMTSS, (3) Make connections with social and emotional learning and student engagement, employability, educational equity, and other approaches/frameworks, (4) Review and select an SEL curriculum, begin integration with academic objectives, (5) Create a Data Evaluation Plan for social and emotional learning, including understanding use of assessment tools, (6) Create an SEL Core Support Plan at district/ school level; align and integrate the plan with your Core Support Plan for academics and behavior. State/Regional Access contact Beth Rice. District/School Access contact District MTSS Coordinator. 

Creating a Professional Culture Based on SEL - This course is designed as part of an online professional learning series developed by Integrated Academic and Behavior Systems. The intent of the series is to support teacher, administrator, and school staff understanding of what social and emotional learning (SEL) is and its importance, as well as to explain how to implement and integrate SEL into their respective contexts in a culturally responsive way. 

Friday Institute SEL for Educators Course - This course was developed with the goal of helping educators build their own foundational understanding of how social and emotional learning (SEL) skills are essential to, and inseparable from, student learning. The Course Objectives include the following: 1-To provide educators with a foundational knowledge of SEL through the lens of the CASEL framework. 2-To build an understanding that SEL competencies are skills to be taught, not traits to be inherited. 3- To guide educators in building a repository of resources, activities, and skills to bring back to their classroom, school, and learning community. 4- To foster an understanding of the importance of educators' own SEL skills to develop the capacity to support students' SEL skills. 5- To provide educators with strategies to model and cultivate SEL competencies in interactions with peers, students, and families to help build SEL culture in their school. 6- To leave participating educators with an understanding of the importance of SEL competencies to the growth and development of justice-oriented, global citizens. Educators who have registered for the SEL for Educators Course. 

Planning Tools

CASEL District & Schoolwide Guide - Created in collaboration with districts and schools across the nation, the resource centers provide comprehensive support to teams and staff to build foundational support and plan, strengthen Adult SEL competencies and capacity, promote SEL for students, and practice continuous improvement. District and school teams/staff can access the District Resource Center or the Schoolwide Guide.

• District Resource Center
• Schoolwide Guide
• Superintendent Guide
• Reopening Roadmap

SHAPE - The School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System is a public-access, web-based platform that offers schools, districts, and states/territories a workspace and targeted resources to support school mental health quality improvement. SHAPE was developed by the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH), in partnership with the field, to increase the quality and sustainability of comprehensive school mental health systems. SHAPE houses the National School Mental Health Census and the School Mental Health Quality Assessment (SMH-QA). These measures are designed for team completion at the school or district level to document the school mental health system components, assess the comprehensiveness of an SMH system, prioritize quality improvement efforts, and track improvement over time. 

Projects and Pilots

North Carolina Social and Emotional Learning & Educational Equity Project - The purpose of this project is to share and collaborate with other LEAs as participants adapt to COVID-19 and build, implement, and/or refine their Core SEL supports while utilizing an educational equity lens. In this project, LEAs are asked to participate in a 2-hour, virtual professional development in which teams will process and reflect on the application of the learning objectives found in the Core SEL Practices online course. In addition, an LEA representative will participate in a 1-hour, virtual Community of Practice (CoP) in which LEAs will have opportunities to share with and learn from one another.

• Cohort 2 Memo
• Cohort 1 Memo

Preschool Pyramid Model Implementation Sites - NC Preschool Pyramid Model (NC PPM) is a conceptual framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s healthy social and emotional development. The Pyramid Model builds upon a tiered public health approach to providing universal supports to all children to promote wellness, targeted services to those who need more support, and intensive services to those who need them. The NC PPM initiative is funded through the IDEA Section 619 Preschool Grant to help improve child outcomes for children ages 3-5 with disabilities and to increase opportunities for instruction in the least restrictive environment (LRE). This initiative is intended for all collaborative partners who work with special education to implement inclusive preschool programs throughout North Carolina. Since 2009 the DPI Office of Early Learning has provided training, consultation, coaching, and other ongoing support for Local Education Agencies (LEAs) across the state to implement the NC PPM framework and practices district-wide.

Project AWARE/ACTIVATE - (Advancing Coordinated and Timely InterVentions, Awareness, Training, and Education) is North Carolina's implementation of the Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education) State Education Agency Grant issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). NC Project AWARE/ACTIVATE addresses the three tiers of mental health (promotion, prevention, and intervention) through a continuum of education, universal screening, and appropriate services and supports for all students in response to varying levels of need. NC Project AWARE/ACTIVATE is a partnership between the NC Department of Public Instruction and the NC Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. Contact Heidi Austin, heidi.austin@dpi.nc.gov.

Resilience & Learning Project - The North Carolina Center for Resilience and Learning works with districts and schools across the state to create trauma-informed learning environments that are safer and more supportive for ALL students. The Center aims to build understanding and awareness about trauma, stress, and their potential impacts while also helping schools focus resilience, support, and safety for their staff and students. Contact Elizabeth DeKonty, edekonty@ncforum.org

To do this, the Center provides two core components: 

1. Professional development for educators on trauma and its potential impact on student learning as well as school-based strategies for building wellness and resilience for staff and students.

2. Ongoing coaching and technical assistance for a core team within a school to support moving past training and awareness and into action. Our coaches help schools to create and implement an action plan of resilience-building strategies tailored to the needs of their students, staff, and community.

Whole Child Pilot - NC Healthy Schools focuses on improving the health of students and staff by providing coordination and resources within the context of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The goal is to create students who are healthier, in school, in class, and ready to learn. Students who are healthier are more alert, more focused on learning, and miss less school. They not only learn better in every class, but they also learn lifelong healthy behaviors. It just makes sense. Additional Resources: NC Healthy Schools The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child, or WSCC model, is CDC’s framework for addressing health in schools. The WSCC model is student-centered and emphasizes the role of the community in supporting the school, the connections between health and academic achievement, and the importance of evidence-based school policies and practices. The WSCC model has 10 components: 1. Physical education and physical activity. 2. Nutrition environment and services. 3. Health education. 4. Social and emotional school climate. 5. Physical environment. 6. Health services. 7. Counseling, psychological and social services. 8. Employee wellness. 9. Community involvement. 10. Family engagement. 

Additional Resources

3 Signature Practices - The 3 signature practices help to build a sense of community and belonging, and they can even lead to joy in training and meetings with adults and in the classrooms for our students. The 3 signature practices are welcoming inclusion activities, engaging pedagogy/practices, and an optimistic closure.

EVERFI - Social-emotional learning competencies are foundational for academic, career, and personal wellness. EVERFI instructional resource design starts with SEL; All of our resources, regardless of their core content, are built to reinforce critical SEL-related skills. Additionally, EVERFI offers resources designed to support school and classroom climate and culture directly. These core SEL resources teach compassion, emotional regulation, and character exploration. EVERFI digital resources, implementation support, ongoing professional development, and customer support are all provided to schools, districts, and families at no cost through funding from sponsors like the NFL, NHL, and Truist. Contact Jackie Oleszewski, joleszewski@everfi.com

North Carolina Social and Emotional Learning Standards Mapping Documents Table - the documents show connections between existing standards in twelve content areas and Core SEL Competencies . Each document provides acknowledgments, an introduction, activities and practices across each Core SEL Competency, and standards alignment with each Core SEL Competency.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Covid-19 Social and Emotional Learning and Crisis Response Practice Guide - In addition to NC DPI's broad-range COVID-19 supports, this practice guide is intended for district and charter school leadership. It serves as a resource for supporting the social-emotional needs of staff and students during school closures and in planning for re-opening. The recommendations can be reviewed in any order, based on local needs.

Completed Webinars

SELf Care Webinar Series (launched April 2021)- ArtsR4Life Sessions sponsored by Arts Education focuses on the concepts of Rekindle, Reflect, Reconnect, and Renew through the arts. These sessions were open to all educators. The SELf Care series of 8 webinars focuses on giving educators a chance to rekindle, reflect, reconnect, and renew through the arts, with practices from all four arts areas. 

Integrating SEL in Content Areas Webinar Series (launched October 2020)- All webinar recordings are available here: Webinar Series Recordings: Integrating SEL into the Content Areas and on each contributing content area's website. These recordings support the use of the NC SEL Standards Mapping Documents.