Policy Update: How Is SEL Faring in State Legislatures?

Key Points

• Teachers, students, families, or school leaders overwhelmingly support SEL. Pro-SEL legislation reflects this enthusiasm and provides support for high-quality implementation.
• Despite this, some political pushback persists, as seen in the introduction of a few anti-SEL bills in 2026.
• This blog summarizes findings reported in full by David Saleh Rauf in Education Week, which includes comments by CASEL’s director of policy, Asher Miller.

Teachers, students, families, or school leaders overwhelmingly support SEL, and many states have proposed legislation supporting SEL implementation in public schools. Despite this, in some states political pushback to SEL persists, as seen in attempts to ban or restrict  SEL implementation in public schools. 

In our work with the Leading with SEL Coalition, CASEL has tracked more than 232 SEL-related proposals across 35 statehouses. Here are some recent developments from 2026 state legislative sessions. 

Pro-SEL Bills

The great majority bills that relate to SEL focus on expanding it. In some of these cases, SEL is identified as the means to tackle tough issues that impact the education system, including chronic absenteeism, substance abuse, violence, and social media usage.

“These are skills that are transferable for lots of different purposes, and I think what we’re seeing in state legislatures is the recognition of that,” said Asher Miller, CASEL’s director of policy. 

Miller also noted, “One of the other big takeaways that we’re seeing more and more is that states are finding ways to advance SEL through different kinds of initiatives and approaches. They’re not necessarily always using the term social and emotional learning, and that’s okay because maybe these are legislatures being responsive to the communities where it’s being implemented. They’re using different language perhaps to focus on specific social and emotional skills.”

Here are some examples, both of which were signed into law: 

• Alabama Senate Bill 364 (SB364) requires Alabama public schools to teach grade 6-12 students how to handle conflicts peacefully by integrating specific social-emotional skills into the curriculum.
• Tennessee Senate Bill 821 creates a pilot grant program for school districts to support substance abuse and violence prevention for students in grades 3-12 that promotes life skills and self-management, which are social and emotional competencies.

Miller added, “One other trend that we’ve seen consistently over the last several years is that … there [are] probably close to 10 or so states each year that are including funding in their annual budgets dedicated specifically to SEL programs or implementation of SEL as part of a broader effort to implement multi-tiered systems of support [MTSS] or after school programs. This year is no exception.”

Anti-SEL Bills: Failed Attempts

In contrast, a  very small percentage of bills relating to SEL have been negative. These include:

Utah

With House Bill 399, state lawmakers attempted to ban “character education” in public schools. The bill defined the term as encompassing a variety of approaches and curricula, including SEL frameworks. It died in committee.

Iowa

House Study Bill (HSB) 718, which also did not pass, sought to mandate that practitioner preparation programs in institutions of higher education remove and prohibit instruction, training, or assessment related to SEL models, diversity, equity, and inclusion theories, and multiculturalism.

Arizona

Following the pandemic, Arizona had approved a bipartisan law requiring schools to provide mental health instruction, including SEL. Members of the state’s legislature attempted to repeal that law with House Bill 2093. After narrowly passing both chambers, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed the bill.

As Miller noted, “In the last four or five legislative sessions across the country, it is not entirely uncommon to have these types of bills introduced and typically go nowhere.”

SEL Remains a Focus in Many Districts

Despite the debates in the statehouse, districts are continuing to implement SEL. 

“They’re sometimes having to reframe or reposition their work,” Miller said. “In those cases, they might be trying to make sure that folks can see the ways in which SEL fits into other initiatives that are also already happening.”

What is key is ensuring that debates over terminology, misapprehensions, and misinformation don’t hamper opportunities for students to experience the benefits of SEL. Studies have shown that SEL positively impacts a range of outcomes including academic achievement, grades, test scores, and attendance. The skills SEL promotes are also highly valued by employers.

Miller sums it up: “SEL is something that incorporates strategies that are foundational to good academic instruction and cultivation of a safe and supportive culture and climate.”

Read more: Anti-SEL Bills Stalled in Statehouses This Year, But Political Pushback Persists, by David Saleh Rauf, EdWeek Market Brief

Related posts

• How Can States Prepare Students for the Future? The “Portrait of the Graduate” Helps Set the Vision
• Blog Series: How SEL Supports Learning in Reading and Math
• What Social-Emotional Growth Can Tell Us About Student Attendance

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