About Us

Together we are building sustainable SEL systems and supports so that all California children and adults can thrive.

What Is CalHOPE SEL?

The CalHOPE Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Community of Practice is helping enable California's schools to be leaders in supporting proactive and early intervention as we collectively respond to the social, emotional, and mental health needs of students, families, and educators.

Through a unique partnership with California Department of Health Services, Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), University of California, Berkeley, and FEMA, California front-line educators are preparing to do the unprecedented task of bringing children back into learning after widespread trauma and isolation.

How Does It Work?

Supported by strong partnership and leveraging California’s existing support network, leaders from all 58 county offices of education (COE) are participating in a statewide SEL Community of Practice (CoP), which aims to build their capacity to be capacity-builders for SEL.

COEs are poised to work alongside local education agencies (LEAs) to share training and evidenced-based practices which address opportunity gaps and disproportionality with schools. The SEL CoP strengthens the county offices of education’s capacity to support local districts and schools statewide, preparing educators to deepen connections with students through relationship and community building, and to be front line responders to protect the psychological wellbeing of all young people across the state.

Schools are uniquely positioned to reach each California child and their family, leveraging the trust developed between schools, youth and families and the daily connections between school staff and students. Schools can do more than just restart learning during and post-Covid; schools can be “centers of wellness,” where all students feel a sense of belonging, connection, safety, inclusion, and support.

With this in mind, each COE will be working alongside their local districts to select a small subset of “focus schools” to provide coordinated and direct SEL support. The goal is to leverage these early learning opportunities to improve coordinated support efforts in order to scale up to systemic SEL across all regions in California.

Goals and Objectives

Project Goals

Building a shared understanding/foundation for COEs across California
Building a statewide network/infrastructure that allows COEs to share best practices and build collective capacity (building the capacity of our capacity builders)
Creating, vetting, and sharing high-quality resources and tools
Modeling structures and activities that COEs can turn-key for
their County SEL Community of Practice
Showcasing successful SEL efforts in COEs, districts, schools

Project Objectives

A statewide, “scaled up” approach.

All 58 California county offices of education (COEs) are engaging in this effort.
Each COE lead attends monthly Statewide SEL Community of Practice meetings to build capacity and a common language of the importance of positioning schools as “Centers of Wellness.”