Resources

In recent years, states, districts, and schools across the country began using a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) to organize and deliver academic and behavioral support for students. At its core, MTSS serves as a framework to support practitioners in using data to ensure that all students are equipped with the skills they need to succeed. Education leaders are increasingly interested in explicitly incorporating social and emotional learning (SEL) within the MTSS framework. This interest is motivated by the desire to more intentionally connect academics and behavior to build equitable systems that ensure all students receive the support they need to succeed.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and the American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) developed this toolkit with the support of the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) and in collaboration with leaders from nine state education agencies (SEAs) across the country that are actively working to integrate SEL and MTSS.

Beginning in October 2020, CCSSO and CASEL convened a community of practice (CoP) of cross-division teams from SEAs committed to working collaboratively to identify opportunities to
integrate equity-focused SEL within MTSS to bring alignment and coherence with existing priorities, systems, and practices and ensure a focus on whole-child development. Out of a robust pool of
applicants, nine states were selected to engage in this effort: Alabama, Hawai’i, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. The states engaged with one another, field leaders, and national experts in a set of peer-to-peer learning experiences over the course of 9 months.

Each state team developed a state alignment plan. States made significant progress towards their goal of integrating SEL within an MTSS framework through listening to stakeholder voices,
conceptualizing how initiatives fit together, developing a shared understanding that reflects cultural values and beliefs, and ensuring the empowerment of schools.

This toolkit draws on the resources and learnings from CoP activities.