Hispanic Heritage Month : September 15 - October 15

Whether you and your students have fully re-entered your classroom, adjusted to a blended experience, or are totally virtual, strong relationships are more important than ever. When you talk to Children's Institute staff about social emotional learning, you will always hear us say that SEL is relationship-based. Students who have good relationships with their educators and their peers are more connected to their learning environments and have better educational experiences than students without those strong relationships.

My name is Falastin Ibrahim. I was born and raised in Rochester, New York. I am a junior at Nazareth college; majoring in social work with a minor in child and family development.

Anti-racism is central to a mission to support children's wellbeing, including their social and emotional development; Children’s Institute is committed to placing it there.

Resources and Recommendations

“Social emotional wellbeing must be schools’ and districts’ top priority in supporting school transitions, not at the expense of academics, but in order to create the mental, social, and emotional space for academic learning to occur.” 

New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) guidance document, Recovering, Rebuilding, Renewing: The Spirit of New York’s Schools, for re-opening or partially re-opening schools this fall prioritizes support for students’ social emotional development. 

The team at Whole Child Connection has reviewed this guidance related to social emotional well-being carefully with an eye toward helping districts unpack the requirements and determine how to meet them.  Under each guideline below you will find a list of ways in which your district may already be on its way to meeting the requirement as well as resources to support next steps. 

Whole Child Connection staff are committed to supporting you during this difficult period of transition. For questions or conversation about these requirements, contact us at connection@childrensinstitute.net 

As schools and learning environments move foward during challenging times, it is important to ensure that adults work to understand the particular stresses placed on children of color. We recommended the recent webinar discussion, I |LS|STILL|RS| Can't Breathe: Supporting Kids Amid Racialized Violence, between embracerace staff and Dr.

               At the Whole Child Connection, we have been committed to transformation – both of the systems and institutions which serve our young people and the mindset with which adults approach their work. We’ve embraced the definitions and frameworks of national organizations like CASEL and the Aspen Institute and committed to connecting our community with the latest, evidence-based thinking on children’s social emotional development.

                And although we’ve consistently framed social emotional learning as instrumental for the success of all young people and urged a framing of SEL grounded in equity, I know we have not gone nearly far enough. Over the past several months, our team has started to explore the gaps in how we do this work, the gaps in our own understandings, and the gaps in how we talk about SEL. A recent article by Cierra Kaler-Jones of the Communities for Just Schools Fund as well as this explanation about the pitfalls of SEL from the National Equity Project have been important starting points in this conversation.

Everyone at Children’s Institute was saddened to learn about the unexpected passing of David Carsel on July 16th. David worked for Children Awaiting Parents whose offices are within Children’s Institute’s space.