​​“School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. It is based on people’s experiences of school and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures,” according to the state Department of Education website.

​​All states and the District of Columbia have now submitted their accountability plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act—though not all have received approval from the U.S. Department of Education. Those policy blueprints offer K-12 providers specifics on the states’ emerging demands for products and services—demands that companies must be ready to meet.

​For a long time, social emotional learning and school climate have been seen as two separate fields, but now researchers and practitioners recognize that both benefit each other and are necessary to building healthy schools. School Climate and Social Emotional Learning: The Integration of Two Approaches issue brief, created by The Pennsylvania State University with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, describes how school climate and SEL can and should be integrated in future research and practice. Read the full brief.

​An interdisciplinary group of 19 school violence experts developed a joint statement endorsed by NSCC, which outlines a public health approach to protect students and adults from gun violence. This statement identifies an 8-point plan involving three levels of prevention, including a recommendation for a national requirement that all schools assess school climate and maintain safe environments that protect all students and adults. You can read the full statement and sign on here.

​The Aspen Institute Education & Society Program released a new brief – Pursuing Social and Emotional Development Through a Racial Equity Lens: A Call to Action​. Developed with input from a broad cross-section of education practitioners and scholars, this framework is intended to help policymakers, practitioners and communities as they work to integrate the culturally and racially responsive approach to social, emotional and academic development necessary to achieve education equity for all students. 

While it will take a concerted, multi-sector approach to achieve full equity for all students and for society, schools have an important role to play. Recognizing the role of race and taking action to respond in a culturally sustaining way, is one critical piece of the puzzle. 

If you’d like to join in endorsing the framework and uniting behind its call to action, you can sign on here.