In 2025, principals are leading their schools through complex issues like learning loss, absenteeism, behavioral challenges, and staff burnout. Amid these pressures, social and emotional learning can make a bigger difference than many think.
According to CASEL, schools teaching social and emotional learning see:
Principals, more than anyone else, set the tone for how social and emotional learning strategies are prioritized. In fact, research tells us that schools with strong principal support for a SEL program demonstrate better student outcomes.
This guide will walk you through what principals need to know in 2025: how to build a sustainable SEL vision, support your staff, select effective practices, and use innovative tools like kinesthetic learning to foster a thriving SEL program.
For principals guiding teachers and staff, a clear understanding of social and emotional learning ensures consistent leadership.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an evidence-based approach to helping students build the soft skills needed for success. This includes developing emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.
It’s important to note that SEL is not therapy. While it may support student well-being, it does not replace mental health care. Instead, SEL equips every student with universal, developmentally appropriate skills, like problem-solving, emotion regulation, and empathy.
When principals support teaching social and emotional learning, they give their schools a proactive way to prevent many behavioral challenges.
CASEL identifies five core social and emotional learning competencies. In K-5 classrooms, these can be nurtured through everyday routines and lessons.
Self-awareness involves recognizing and understanding one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values. To practice this in the classroom, a teacher might ask students to do a quick “feelings check-in” at the start of the day.
How are your students feeling?
Provide a daily check-in for your students using our free social-emotional learning worksheet! This worksheet helps students describe and illustrate their feelings. Stay in touch with your students and know how to best support them each day!
Self-management is the ability to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. For example, a student might practice deep breathing before a big test to stay calm and focused.
Social awareness is the ability to recognize others’ perspectives. In math class, two students may solve a problem correctly using different methods. Having the students share their different approaches helps them develop this competency.
Relationship skills involve making and maintaining healthy and supportive relationships with others. One way to foster these skills is to have students work in pairs on a science experiment where they take turns and share materials.
Responsible decision-making means making personal and social choices that are logical and considerate of others. For instance, a responsible student will choose to do their part of a group project, so that they learn new information, receive a good grade, and help their partners.
By embedding these social and emotional learning strategies into daily routines, teachers can create classrooms where students feel safe, respected, and ready to learn.
The importance of social and emotional learning, especially in early education, is backed by decades of research.
A 2015 longitudinal study examined whether kindergarten teachers’ ratings of children’s prosocial skills could be a predictor of key adolescent and adult outcomes. The study found that participants with strong kindergarten prosocial skills were more likely to:
Participants with weaker kindergarten prosocial skills were more likely to:
Another meta-analysis found measurable benefits in the social-emotional skills, attitudes, and overall well-being of SEL program participants up to 18 years later.
Overall, developing the core social and emotional learning competencies early in life can make a huge difference.
More and more schools are recognizing the importance of social and emotional learning. Around the country, educators are experimenting with innovative instructional approaches and new social and emotional learning strategies, like the ones below.
Technology offers powerful tools for teaching social and emotional learning, including mindfulness apps and platforms that model respectful digital communication. Encouraging online time management and digital citizen skills directly supports SEL competencies like self-management and responsible decision-making.
Related Reading: Screen Time for Kids: A Movement-Focused Approach for Schools
PBL naturally integrates SEL by asking students to collaborate, solve problems, and navigate challenges together. It strengthens relationship skills and empathy, while giving students authentic opportunities to practice responsible decision-making.
Culturally responsive SEL helps students see their own identities reflected in learning, while teaching them to value and respect others’ perspectives. This approach fosters equity by embedding social and emotional learning competencies, like social awareness and relationship skills, into daily instruction.
Pairing inquiry with SEL builds curiosity, courage, and collaboration. For example, group science experiments teach academic content as well as teamwork, communication, and perseverance.
Time in nature reduces stress, improves focus, and encourages self-regulation. Outdoor learning experiences support students’ emotional well-being while giving them chances to practice cooperation in less structured, real-world environments.
Schools are increasingly connecting SEL with mental health initiatives, such as offering mental health days or trauma-informed practices. While SEL and mental health are not the same, social and emotional learning strategies certainly promote positive mental health. SEL gives students everyday tools to manage emotions and relationships.
When social and emotional learning strategies are integrated into innovative instruction, schools create successful learning environments for both academics and overall student well-being.
According to CASEL’s 2022 State Scan, all 50 states have adopted Pre-K SEL competencies, and 27 states have adopted K-12 SEL competencies. This widespread adoption reflects the growing consensus that the importance of social and emotional learning extends across grade levels and school contexts.
As principals lead in this space, effective advocacy matters. When communicating with parents, staff, or school boards about SEL, focus on:
By framing SEL as both a student success strategy and a school improvement tool, principals can secure the buy-in and resources needed to build sustainable programs.
Related Reading: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards in the US
Effective leadership involves creating structures, routines, and supports that make teaching social and emotional learning second nature for staff. Below are practical, research-backed ways to lead SEL across your school community.
Start with the basics to get your school invested and involved:
For educators to consider social and emotional strategies essential to each day, there must be schoolwide consistency:
Related Reading: Understanding ACEs and How Childhood Trauma Affects Learning
Look for programs that follow the SAFE framework:
SEL programs with SAFE framework qualities have a significant positive impact on SEL skills, student attitudes towards themselves and others, school bonding, behavioral problems, emotional distress, and academic performance.
Furthermore, principals should evaluate programs based on their school’s needs, culture, and resources. Ask: Does this program align with state SEL competencies? Does it offer teacher training? Does it fit into our schedule?
Movement is a powerful yet underutilized SEL tool. Physical activity boosts focus, builds self-regulation, develops self-confidence, and strengthens teamwork, all of which are key goals of social and emotional learning strategies.
At Math & Movement, we’ve seen firsthand how simple physical activities can reinforce social and emotional learning competencies while boosting student engagement with academic material. Our supplemental program can provide principals and teachers with kinesthetic activities that reinforce SEL and its core concepts.
Our program includes:
By working together during movement-based activities, students naturally practice SEL competencies. Movement creates a shared experience and supportive setting.
Check out the sample activities below from our program, as well as more social and emotional strategies that are proven to work in schools.
Recite a positive affirmation together as a class while doing a cross-body movement with your arms or legs. For example, for the affirmation “I am strong”, punch the right arm across the body and say, “I”. Then, punch the left arm across the body and say, “am”. Finally, jump, clap, and shout, “Strong!”
Use this activity as a quick break to reenergize students and activate both halves of their brains.
One student, the “jumper”, starts at zero on the Skip Counting by 3s. The rest of the students stand along the sides of the mat. The jumper hops down the mat, landing only on the red boxes that feature a multiple of 3. The class will skip count aloud, staying in sync with the number the jumper is on. Encourage students to clap or snap as they count together.
Once the jumper reaches 30, they join the sidelines, and another student takes their place as the jumper. Continue until each student has had a turn to jump.
To sustain SEL programs, principals need to demonstrate results. Assessments help schools personalize support for students, celebrate progress, and show stakeholders the importance of social and emotional learning.
Use surveys, behavior tracking, and student reflections to capture growth. Pair this data with stories, like fewer discipline referrals or calmer classroom transitions, to paint a full picture of success.
By combining schoolwide systems, evidence-based programs, kinesthetic learning, and smart data use, principals can embed social and emotional learning deeply into their schools.
When school leaders treat social and emotional learning as a central pillar, rather than a passing trend or an add-on, they create conditions for lasting success. Strong leadership ensures that SEL programs are sustainable, equitable, and aligned with student and staff needs. The results will bring a noticeable change: calmer classrooms, improved academic outcomes, and students who are prepared to thrive in real life.
Prioritizing SEL alongside academics is a choice that shapes student success today and their opportunities for the future. By embedding SEL into school culture and making movement an intentional part of your SEL plan, principals can lead schools where students are engaged, supported, and inspired to learn.
Math & Movement resources help educators combine academic learning with physical activity, supporting focus, cooperation, and emotional well-being in lasting ways.
Explore Math & Movement’s SEL tools and discover how movement-based learning can transform both academics and social and emotional growth.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an evidence-based approach to helping students build the soft skills needed for success. This includes developing emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.
Social and emotional learning is important because research shows its proven benefits for long-term student success. Research from CASEL reports that schools teaching social and emotional learning see a positive impact on students’ academic achievement, improved student engagement, and decreased emotional distress among students. Another study found measurable benefits in the social-emotional skills, attitudes, and overall well-being of SEL program participants up to 18 years later.
The five core social and emotional learning competencies are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These are the fundamental abilities identified by CASEL that enable students to understand emotions, build healthy relationships, and make ethical choices in school, their careers, and throughout life.
Principals can support teaching social and emotional learning by:
CASEL: SEL and Mental Health – Accessed September 4, 2025
Suzy Koontz, CEO and Founder of Math & Movement, has spent over 25 years helping students achieve academic success. She has created over 200 kinesthetic teaching tools adopted by schools nationwide and has authored over 20 books. As a sought-after national presenter, Suzy shares how movement can transform the way students learn.
How are your students feeling?
Provide a daily check-in for your students using our free social-emotional learning worksheet!
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