State Bright Spots: SEL and the American Rescue Plan Act. Aligning SEL Efforts across Schools, Families, and Communities. Brief 2 of 3

The second of three "bright spot" briefs examines how states are leveraging ARP funds to improve SEL for all students through collaboration among schools, families, and communities. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) provided a $122 billion historic federal investment in K-12 education to help states and districts safely reopen schools and address students' academic, social, and emotional learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. CASEL has recommended three priority areas for social and emotional learning (SEL) investment that can assist states and districts in optimizing ARP for student success: (1) Promote social and emotional learning (SEL) for students; (2) Align SEL efforts across schools, families, and communities; and (3) Support adult SEL competencies and capacity building. This "Bright Spots" brief highlights policy innovations around Priority Area 2--aligning SEL efforts across schools, families, and communities--through state investments in evidence-based SEL to support academic recovery and social and emotional well-being, the need for which was made abundantly clear by the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief for Priority Area 1 was published in December 2022 and an additional brief for Priority Area 3 is forthcoming. [For the Priority Area 1 brief, see ED626379.]