4 Ways to Make Your Case for Adult Social and Emotional Learning

Picture this: Your teachers and afterschool staff are struggling to manage challenging behaviors, student anxiety is at an all-time high, and academic performance is suffering. You know incorporating social and emotional learning (SEL) practices into your daily routine could make a difference, but when you bring up professional development, the response is often the same: “We just don’t have the budget for that.”

You’re not alone. According to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, 36 percent of educators identified lack of funding and resources as the primary barrier to implementing SEL in their schools. Yet we’ve become so fixated on finding the right SEL curriculum or program that we’ve overlooked the most powerful SEL tool we already have: ourselves. For decades, we’ve been so focused on SEL for kids that we’ve skipped a step. It’s time we pause—and rewind.

To fully grow SEL skills in students, we must first invest in the adults delivering those lessons. And this isn’t just observation—our participation in a randomized control trial (RCT) has the data to prove it. The RCT confirmed adult social-emotional skills are essential to delivering on measurable outcomes for kids. Frontline staff need a broad range of capabilities: behavior management, problem-solving, child engagement, and sensitivity to group dynamics. And, what we learned from this research directly enhanced how we develop our staff and reinforced what we’ve always known: adults are the missing link.

Last fall, our team facilitated a training with afterschool staff who felt overwhelmed and frustrated. One educator said, “I feel like I’m supposed to be everything to everyone—and I don’t have the tools to manage my own stress, let alone teach kids how to manage theirs.”

Her words cut straight to the heart of what schools and programs across the country still struggle to recognize—strong adult social and emotional skills (like emotional regulation) are the foundation for everything else. We paused, refocused, and watched the group transform—moving from overwhelmed to empowered as they identified their stress patterns, built personalized regulation toolkits, and practiced new communication approaches. One month later, that same educator reported fewer outbursts in her group and said, “The biggest change was actually me. Once I was able to calm down, the kids followed.”

That’s the impact adult SEL training and professional development can have. But how do we convince others that SEL for adults isn’t extra—it’s essential? Here are four ways to make your case for adult social and emotional learning: 

In an ideal world, you’d have time to gather robust data like attendance and behavior trends, but starting small—with accessible information and a few daily observations—can lead to meaningful insights that you can use to build your case:

• Discipline Data: “Last month alone, we had 25 referrals related to emotional outbursts or peer conflict.”
• Attendance Patterns: “We have three to four students regularly missing the first period—often due to anxiety or social concerns.”
• Classroom Observations: “In most classrooms, the first 10 to 15 minutes are spent managing emotional needs.”
• Parent Concerns:  “In the past two weeks, I’ve had 12 parent conversations, and 9 of them centered around their children’s anxiety or social challenges at school.”

Reactive support is expensive. You might be spending thousands each year on crisis response.

• “Our counselor spends 15 hours per week managing student emotional crises. That’s $12,000/year in reactive care. What if teachers had tools to prevent 30 percent of those issues?”

Explore multiple options to fund professional development for your team.

• State School Climate Grants, local community foundations, and partnerships with neighboring districts can reduce costs and increase collaboration.
• Example: “Three local districts pooled funds for joint SEL PD, cutting costs by 65 percent.”

You don’t need a full-scale rollout on day one.

• Pilot Idea. “Let’s start with the 6th-grade team and track behavior and engagement for 12 weeks.”
• Propose Phased Implementation. For example:
  • Phase 1 : Train 6th-grade team
  • Phase 2 (Spring 2026): Expand to all middle school staff
  • Phase 3 (2026-27): Full K-12 implementation
• Teacher Leader Model. Train veteran staff as SEL coaches to reduce reliance on external trainers over time.

A few weeks after a training session, one teacher shared, “I didn’t think one training could make such a difference, but it gave me a chance to reflect and reset. I’m showing up differently—and so are my students.”

We can’t expect adults to model regulation, empathy, and responsible decision-making if they aren’t supported in developing those skills themselves. Investing in adult SEL isn’t about adding something new—it’s about unlocking the potential of what’s already there: the people leading kids every day.

Start small. Share stories. Gather data. And don’t stop making the case. Because when the adults grow, so do the kids.