SEL Dallas Guidebook

Welcome to the SEL Implementation Guidebook for Dallas!

Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), Big Thought, Dallas Afterschool, and the City of Dallas Park & Recreation began a collaborative partnership to design social and emotional learning (SEL) plans and execute aligned strategies for in-school and out-of-school-time (OST) spaces. In partnership with our campus and OST program staff, we have tried, learned, tweaked and grown different aspects of our SEL work and want to share our best practices with the broader Dallas community.

We hope that this information will help expedite learning for new campuses and OST providers looking to start their own SEL implementation journeys.

We encourage you to use this Guidebook as a starting point for SEL implementation and partnership building, and as an ongoing reference resource for practice ideas.

Although there are many resources and recommendations within the Guidebook that will apply to both in-school and out-of-school-time spaces, we made an effort to differentiate guidance as needed so that school practitioners and OST practitioners have realistic tools and information for their specific settings, too.

You can download the printable SEL Dallas Implementation Guidebook or navigate through the content below.

The SEL Dallas team recognizes that implementation is an iterative journey that requires ample time to design, coordinate, and tailor to your unique environment. Moreover, adults need time to learn, practice, and build upon their SEL skills and knowledge to be most effective when facilitating SEL practices with students and guiding their development. We encourage you to always be intentional and focused in your planning and partnership development efforts.

At this point in our journey, the SEL Dallas leadership team is still growing with goals to develop family and caregiver-focused SEL support, facilitate opportunities for student leadership and voice, and support continuous improvement cycles. We look forward to adding new content to this Guidebook as we continue our own learning and identify additional best practices.

Thank you for your interest to implement social and emotional learning strategies with your staff, students, and families. We are excited to see SEL implementation expand across our community and to see all the many ways that students and adults can connect through SEL!

Welcome to the SEL Implementation Guidebook for Dallas!

Download the printable SEL Dallas Implementation Guidebook

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