Resources

This issue brief, created by The Pennsyvlania State University with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, addresses some of the barriers that prevent many students of color and other marginalized youth from developing social and emotional competencies. The authors identify those barriers as: poverty, exclusionary discipline practices and policies in school, lack of trauma-informed practices in school, implicit bias in school staff, and educator stress and burnout.

The brief then discusses five opportunities for overcoming those barriers: School racial and socioeconomic integration initiatives, restorative justice practices for school discipline, trauma-informed system interventions, culturally competent and equity-literate educators, and SEL and mindfulness programming to support students and teachers.