Support Staff
Why is SEL Important for School Support Staff?
Support staff play an important role in Social-Emotional Learning. Expanded learning staff, counselors, social workers, clinicians, nurses, paraprofessionals, yard duty teams, and office managers (and many more)—these roles form the connective tissue that links students, teachers, and families. Often embedded and active in the community, and consistently present in the school environment, support staff build deep, trusting relationships that help students feel seen, safe, and cared for across the years.
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As support staff, your daily work embodies SEL: personably greeting students and families to campus, initiating and easing communication between home and school, resolving conflicts and nursing recess wounds, connecting students and families with resources, and advocating for students’ needs. Your interactions model empathy, care, respect, and problem-solving in ways that resonate beyond the classroom and school building.
Because support staff often move between settings and roles, you are uniquely positioned to adapt SEL principles to a variety of contexts. In doing so, you act as a transformation lever, shaping positive school climates and advancing equity by removing barriers and uplifting students’ strengths and assets. Yet this work requires intentional support. Adult SEL skills, like setting boundaries, practicing self-care, and building strong relationships, will help sustain your impact. When schools invest in the SEL capacity of support staff, they amplify a group whose influence is immeasurable.
SEL is a shared, communal responsibility. Everyone plays an important part in growing and maintaining the SEL ecosystem. Read on to learn ways to practice SEL in your school community, and to dive deeper into the extensive research on SEL’s positive effect on classroom climate, academic culture, and community-wide transformation. While the work of SEL is a process and takes time, sustainability requires all of us to remain purposeful and intentional about SEL implementation, integration, and practice.
Essential Questions
For Support Staff
Integrating SEL in your work asks you to dive deeper into your “why” as an educator and change-maker. Here are a few questions for deeper reflection before you begin or continue on the SEL path. Use your answers to help you make meaning of an SEL approach within the unique context of your community.
How does attending to my personal well-being support the well-being of my students? Colleagues? Families?
What assumptions or biases do I need to check in order to cultivate caring, empathetic, and connected relationships with students and staff I engage with?
How does my identity influence the way I show up for students? Colleagues? Families?
What is the quality of my current relationships with students and colleagues?
What strategies will I use to “pause” before “responding” so I do not perpetuate harm?
SEL Practices for Support Staff
Model
Model equity-centered SEL and well-being through embodied practices, such as attending to personal care, and maintaining a stance of curiosity, reflection, and vulnerability.
Engage
Engage in schoolwide professional learning opportunities and practices that support community-building.
Contribute
Contribute to cultivating spaces of inclusivity and belonging.
Listen
Listen with curiosity and without judgement.
Leverage
Leverage restorative conversations to support students and colleagues.
Build
Build and maintain positive relationships with students, families, and colleagues.
SEL Resource Library
For Support Staff
Take some time to view our Social-Emotional Learning Resource Library.
