Process

Budgets for SEL implementation are typically limited, and it’s common for districts to underfund their SEL initiatives. When this happens, districts may find they’re unable to support implementation.

It might be useful to review how other school districts budgeted for and rolled out SEL. We have documented how four school districts used different strategies in their first years of implementing SEL across all schools and grade levels. For each district, we have a brief case study and a multi-year budget.

• Austin Independent School District
• Chicago Public School District
• Washoe County School District
• Wheaton-Warrenville Community School District

Use our cost estimator to see what your district’s costs might be if you adopt a budget model similar to that of Austin, Washoe County, or Wheaton-Warrenville.

All four study districts began with their vision for what SEL would look like in classrooms and schools before they put together an implementation plan. (Developing a shared vision should be your first step as well). They developed annual budgets for the first two years by iteratively building implementation models with cost in mind. SEL leads, design teams, and advisory committees held fast to their vision as a guide for implementation planning. Most required development of funding streams that were larger than the initial planned allocation, particularly in years three to five of the SEL initiative. All four SEL leads brought together broad, diverse groups of stakeholders on design teams or advisory committees. This helped to broaden SEL beyond the SEL department, which increased ownership of SEL throughout the district, avoided SEL being perceived as an isolated element in schools, and increased the odds of SEL sustainability.

Rapidly deploying introductory SEL training and engaging a group of early adopters at a deeper level helped build early support.  In Austin Independent School District they rolled out SEL over a span of years, involving additional vertical school team cohorts each year.  Seeing the impact on neighboring schools in the district, some principals whose schools were still one or two years away from beginning SEL implementation asked if they could use their own site funding to purchase evidence-based programs and participate in district SEL professional development right away. After demonstrating gains in initial years, the SEL lead in Chicago felt she had developed the “firepower” to request a significant budget allocation to hire 14 new SEL coaches needed to spread SEL to all elementary schools.  The approval and allocation of funding for the coaches starting in year three demonstrated district support at the highest levels.

Consider the context. As you plan your new SEL initiative, begin by considering what kinds of resources are or will be available and how the initiative will compete with existing priorities and initiatives already underway. The following questions can guide this discussion:

• What is your district’s budget?
• How are you funding top priorities?
• Are dedicated funding sources available for SEL?
• How long will those sources be available?
• How are you using them now?
• To what extent are you already advancing SEL in your district? If so, how and by whom?
• Can SEL replace or supplement similar efforts? Does implementing SEL eliminate or reduce the need for something else? For example, SEL is commonly intertwined with Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), Response to Intervention (RTI), and Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS). Staff often operate these programs under the SEL umbrella. As SEL is integrated with many other departments, districts that are just getting started should consider restructuring or perhaps integrating current departments under SEL.

Refer back to the SEL strategy you have developed so far (see Shared Vision and Plan and/or your Districtwide SEL Action Planning Workbook), which includes your vision, goals, review of existing SEL-related efforts, planned action steps, and aligned evaluation plan.  To estimate the cost of carrying out this work, you’ll want to consider

• The total number of students and schools served by your districts.
• Programming, curriculum, materials, professional learning, coaching, and other services that may be needed to support SEL.
• Resources needed to expand and sustain SEL long-term.
• Resources to ensure that the SEL needs of all schools are equitably addressed.
• Staff to direct, coordinate and continuously improve districtwide SEL strategy.
• Staff to provide ongoing SEL implementation support and technical assistance to schools.
• Staff to support SEL-related data collection and analysis.
• Administrative supports.

By analyzing the budgets of 3 of our district partners that have employed different SEL implementation strategies, we built a cost estimator to help you estimate what your SEL implementation costs might be.

Most districts find that the biggest cost of SEL implementation is staffing. As you’re analyzing your budgetary needs, you’ll need to factor in the costs of new staff. Similarly, if you have budgetary limitations, you may need to rethink how you will leverage your current staff to support SEL.

Some strategies will fit your goals and cost constraints better than others. The following questions, in the context of your district’s SEL goals, may help guide your reflection and decision-making:

• What’s more important: breadth or depth of SEL implementation?
• Are some components more vulnerable to cuts or attrition? For example, what happens when trained and experienced staff leaves?
• Can you allocate resources to reproduce long-term professional development at lower cost?
• Are there one-time investments that present an opportunity for greater financial sustainability over the long term?
• How will a particular strategy be impacted if funding is cut or leadership changes?

Don’t forget to consider costs over time. Because it is usually not feasible to implement SEL at all grades and schools simultaneously, district leaders must develop a phased-in implementation plan. They must ensure the phased-in implementation model doesn’t become simply a pilot in which interested schools volunteer or low-performing schools are required to participate. A multiyear phase-in plan should be made public and the timeline adhered to so that all schools are engaged within a reasonable amount of time, typically two to five years. When designing a phase-in plan, consider the depth and breadth of implementation over time.

For example:

• Austin Independent School District used a five-year phase-in approach through which schools received in-depth professional development and on-site coaching, generally starting with the use of an evidence-based SEL program and expanding to include school culture, school climate, and integration.
• Washoe County School District started with two years of broad introductory work across the district and worked with a group of pilot schools. The district then developed a two-year phase-in, with five cohorts of schools receiving professional development for school site SEL leadership teams, including an evidence-based SEL program and professional development modules for the leadership team to provide to all staff.
• Wheaton-Warrenville took two years to provide 11 professional development modules at all 20 school sites simultaneously. Principals delivered the training.

The SEL budget planning tool is a three step template that will help you to compare budget-related tradeoffs of different implementation strategies, draft your district’s SEL budget, and discuss and adjust your budget with your broader team.

If your SEL leadership team does not have a member who is fluent with the school district budget and spreadsheets, it’s strongly recommended that you invite your chief financial officer or someone from the budget department. Involving your chief financial officer early in the SEL planning process will improve your plan and will help you build sustainable strategies into your multi-year effort.

Large-scale initiatives take time to achieve student outcomes. Although other important district- or school-level outcomes may be achieved sooner, districtwide initiatives take a minimum of three to seven years to realize demonstrable student results. Large-scale initiatives are often funded, completely or in part, by external grants from a single private donor, foundations or public source. External funding provides an initial influx of money that districts can use to hire new staff or reassign current staff, provide new or expanded programs and services, or provide technical assistance or training to staff. With well-documented academic, mental health, college and career, and other outcomes, SEL is a school reform priority of tremendous interest to local, regional, national funders, including individual donors, philanthropic foundations, research organizations, and government agencies.

But this funding comes with strings. Although grants and donations often have a positive impact on the district’s work, they are available for a limited number of years. The inherent challenge for districts is that even with multi-year grants, external funding will eventually change or end altogether, often before districts can show desired student-level outcomes. Without such funds, SEL programs and staff are vulnerable to cuts unless the district raises new funds, absorbs program expenses into the district’s operating budget, and/or reallocates general education funds toward SEL.

Thus, while the first Collaborating Districts Initiative partners received a grant from NoVo Foundation to help launch their SEL initiatives, district leaders, and especially the SEL directors, began thinking about affordability and sustainability very early.

New funding sources may include:

• Federal and state grants: School districts have experienced success in writing proposals targeted toward SEL implementation, as well as integrating SEL into another content area. For example, a plan for improving mathematics achievement may include SEL as one of the interventions. Building partnerships among cabinet level leaders to co-write proposals is an excellent strategy. Useful resources include; CASEL’s policy brief on investing in SEL using funds from the American Rescue Plan, RAND’s Social and Emotional Learning Interventions under the Every Student Succeeds Act, George Washington University’s Center on Education Policy’s Guide to Federal Education Programs That Can Fund K-12 Universal Prevention and Social and Emotional Learning Activities, and the Grantsmanship Center.
• Philanthropic fund development: While many districts have support for grant-writing and federal and state projects, few have a department to support raising funds from foundations and donors. Partnering with your local educational foundation, civic groups, community foundations, and municipal funding collaboratives is a great way to begin your journey in philanthropic work. Often your superintendent and board members will know of donors and foundations who may be interested in funding SEL.

Determine when to approach external funders. Some funders may want to support the early adoption of SEL while others may want to wait for results from an initial pilot. Some funders may want to support organizations that partner with your district rather than the district itself. Your district fund development staff should be able to offer insights.

Our Collaborating Districts Initiative partners generated interest with potential funders in different ways:

• They engaged local leaders to cultivate relationships with funders.  Here are some sample fund development event invitations:
  • Sacramento City’s Sample Fundraising Invite Featuring Student Work and Community Leader Breakfast and Roundtable Discussion
  • Washoe County’s Sample Fundraising Event Invitation with Multiple Outside Experts
  • Atlanta Public School’s Sample Fundraising Event Invitation with Outside Expert
• They demonstrated the value of SEL to potential funders with media coverage of SEL in their district, or with videos that showed SEL in action. Materials you develop for SEL-related communications or to build district expertise may support these efforts.
• They regularly shared successes and outcome data with funders. For example, Austin and Washoe County collaborated with district research/ evaluation/ assessment/ accountability leaders to develop measures, tools, and systems for assessing school site implementation and outcomes. Austin developed a tool for schools and the district to annually measure the depth of SEL at each site, and published some initial studies of student outcomes on its website. Washoe County includes measures of student SEL competence on its annual student climate survey.
  • Austin SEL Impact Data Summary 
  • Washoe County’s SEL Data story links SEL to positive student outcomes
• They scheduled site visits so funders could see SEL in action. Sherrie Raven, Austin’s SEL Director from 2011-2016, shared, “All funders will tell you that the site visit makes the biggest difference in their funding decision. Seeing SEL in action, along with meeting teachers, kids, and principals, is vital.” Several districts developed SEL demonstration schools that community members, donors, and other school districts can visit to see SEL in action on a consistent basis.

Here are some useful resources for identifying external public and private funding:

• The Three Highest Priority Investments to Make in SEL with American Rescue Plan Dollars – This policy brief from CASEL shares recommendations for how state and local policymakers and district leaders can prioritize ARP funds for SEL, and includes details on funding eligibility for each kind of SEL investment.
• Social and Emotional Learning Interventions under ESSA – This free eBook from RAND discusses the opportunities for supporting SEL under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the standards of evidence under ESSA, and SEL interventions that meet the standards of evidence and might be eligible for federal funds through ESSA.
• Supporting Social-Emotional Learning with Evidence-Based Programs – This resource from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is a guide for funding evidence-based SEL programs for district administrators, funding partners, and providers. Includes examples and strategies for funding, implementing, and sustaining.
• 30+ Funding Resources to Implement SEL – This article from Classroom Champions provides information on federal resources, demographic-specific funding, nationwide grants, crowdfunding sites, and community funding resources outside the educational arena.
• CASEL Webinars on Funding for SEL – See our 2020 webinar on funding streams for SEL and a 2015 webinar about philanthropic funding for SEL.
• Tips and Resources for Funding an SEL Program – This 2016 article shares examples of local, state, and federal funding opportunities along with practical recommendations for making a strong case for your initiative.

If you’re developing an SEL budget apart from your annual district budget process, determine which leaders need to approve the budget for implementation to begin. Determine if you need to communicate your SEL budget and human resources decisions to the district or school leaders.

Conduct an annual risk assessment of funds and staff positions that support SEL. Are any grants ending? Are any leadership or political changes threatening to pull funds away from SEL? Are any staff cuts expected?

• If you are losing funds in the next two years, repeat the steps in this process to identify new funding resources that could fill budget shortcomings.
• If your funds are at risk due to leadership changes, leverage any partnerships with other districts with SEL expertise and civic and social service organizations to increase SEL advocacy to district and city officials. Increase communication internally and in public forums to share positive outcomes of SEL for students in your district.

Through the process, you will want to communicate the importance of these investments regularly with all key stakeholders: board, staff, parents, community members, and funders. Make the case for SEL. Be transparent about your spending assumptions–why you are making the investments, how they fit into your overall strategic plan, and what stakeholders can expect and when. Create opportunities for multiple stakeholders to be involved in creating your SEL budgets; teachers, staff, parents, and other stakeholders often are more effective messengers than districts leaders, especially with their peers and colleagues.

You can find general communication advice here in Focus Area 1.

Some useful communications resources related specifically to funding include:

• The Economic Value of Social and Emotional Learning – Researchers examined the use of six evidence-based SEL programs, and found, on average, that every dollar spent yielded $11 in benefits.
• The Case for SEL – This presentation provides a library of slides with research on SEL, which you can customize and use to introduce the importance of SEL to staff, community partners, families, potential funders, and other stakeholders.  In the notes section, you’ll see talking points to help you plan a presentation.
• Benefits of SEL – CASEL’s page summarizing research documenting the impact of SEL and support for SEL.

While staffing may vary across districts, it is critical to engage or recruit an SEL lead or director to oversee implementation and drive forward the district’s vision for SEL. This person should have access to district leaders (including the superintendent) and direct links to those responsible for curriculum and instruction, school leadership, professional learning, and other functions connected to SEL implementation. Here are some sample job descriptions of leadership roles in SEL:

• Director of SEL and MTSS
• Assistant Superintendent of Social and Emotional Learning and Wellness
• Executive Director – Whole Child Services and Support
• SEL Executive Director

In addition, depending on the size of your district, you may wish to add other SEL support roles to round out your SEL team, such as:

• SEL coach: The SEL coach supports SEL leadership teams and teachers as they incorporate SEL into the classroom and wider school community.
  • Sample: SEL coach job description
• SEL coordinator: In larger districts, you may want to include an additional layer of support between the director and those staff who work directly with schools to ensure that the SEL vision is translated into practice (though in smaller districts, the SEL director or lead may also fulfill this function).
  • Sample: SEL coordinator job description
• SEL specialists: Some districts include content experts who support SEL practice in areas such as integrating SEL standards into core academic content, school climate, or SEL for families. This role is sometimes combined with SEL coach.
  • Sample: SEL specialist job description
• SEL-focused research analyst: The research analyst helps develop evaluation designs, manages and oversees data collection and analysis, and reports evaluation results. This position may be housed in your district’s research department.
  • Sample: R and E Analyst job description
• SEL parent outreach coordinator: The role creates and sustains a SEL family-engagement curriculum that offers relevant and meaningful learning experiences that empower parents to reinforce SEL instruction in the home environment.
  • Sample: SEL Parent outreach coordinator job description

When building your SEL team, we recommend considering the diversity in your district to ensure an SEL team that is representative of the community they’ll be supporting.

Since SEL is most effective and sustainable when integrated across district functions, you’ll want to encourage your district to assign accountability for SEL integration to particular staff within the central office.

Your superintendent may wish to assign particular responsibilities regarding SEL, or the SEL lead may invite staff in various departments to collaborate to determine accountability and responsibility.

Also, consider “cross-training” existing staff such as behavioral specialists and restorative practice specialists in SEL so that they can incorporate SEL into their areas of specialization and provide additional support to overarching SEL efforts.

In partnership with your district’s human resources department, identify key SEL-related competencies that are critical for the district and school positions. Then, review and update job postings and descriptions to highlight the importance of modeling SEL competencies.

Look for ways to incorporate SEL into your discussions with candidates for teaching and superintendent positions. Here are some interview questions you can use or adapt:

• Job interview questions for teachers and other staff
• Job interview questions for superintendent candidate

After SEL is embedded into job descriptions, you’ll want to ensure SEL becomes an expected competency for staff throughout the district and schools. Work with your human resources department to examine evaluation and employment policies to determine where SEL-related competencies already exist and where they could be enhanced. Consider how to communicate and support staff in meeting these expectations (see Focus Area 2).

If needed, you may also want to consider including SEL professional learning and implementation activities in union contracts. This ensures that SEL becomes a standard professional responsibility for key staff, including teachers, instructional coaches, and school counselors.

As an example, look at the Cleveland Teachers Union Agreement from 2013 through 2016, which includes provisions regarding the role of the district’s HumanWare/Social Emotional Learning Committee.