North Carolina has gone further than most states in building statewide infrastructure for social-emotional learning, even without adopting standalone K-12 SEL standards. The state has a dedicated SEL Implementation Team at NCDPI. It has legislatively mandated school-based mental health plans for every public school unit. It required “in-person social-emotional learning supports for all students” through Session Law 2021-7. It maintains formal crosswalk documents showing how SEL competencies align to the NC Standard Course of Study across all content areas. And every public school unit in the state must submit an SEL and School Mental Health Improvement Plan annually.
This is not a state that treats social-emotional learning as optional. It is a state that has built the framework, created the infrastructure, and now expects schools to implement it.
For North Carolina elementary educators, the practical question is no longer whether SEL matters. The state has answered that. The question is how to build a program that satisfies the Healthful Living standards, supports the school-based mental health plan, fulfills the SEL improvement plan requirements, and delivers structured instruction to students in a way that is consistent and documentable.
North Carolina's SEL Infrastructure at a Glance
Unlike states that rely on a single mandate, North Carolina has built a layered system of legislation, policy, standards, and dedicated staff:
Session Law 2020-7
School-based mental health mandate with training requirements
Session Law 2021-7
Requires in-person SEL supports for ALL students
Policy SHLT-003
State Board policy operationalizing mental health plans
Healthful Living Standards
MEH and ICHR strands cover SEL content K-12
Annual SEL/SMH Plan
Every PSU must submit improvement plan with data
NCDPI SEL Team
Dedicated state-level implementation team
6 interconnected components — no standalone SEL standards needed
North Carolina SEL Policy Timeline
North Carolina's SEL infrastructure was built rapidly between 2020 and 2025:
June 2020
Session Law 2020-7 (SB 476)
School-based mental health mandate: plans, training, and suicide prevention for every PSU
November 2020
State Board Policy SHLT-003
Operationalizes mental health law; requires annual improvement plans connecting SEL to instruction
April 2021
Session Law 2021-7 (HB 82)
“In-person social-emotional learning supports for all students” — explicit SEL requirement
2024
Updated Healthful Living Essential Standards
New K-9 standards with strengthened MEH and ICHR strands; CASEL crosswalk updated
2025
New Required Plan Template
All PSUs must use the updated SEL/SMH Improvement Plan format with data requirements
Mental Health Training Investment Over Time
North Carolina's training requirements accumulate significantly. A teacher hired in 2020 has received substantial mental health training by 2026:
16 cumulative hours of mental health training per teacher by year 6 — students need matching instruction
The School-Based Mental Health Law
Session Law 2020-7 (SB 476): The Foundation
In June 2020, North Carolina enacted Session Law 2020-7, one of the most comprehensive school-based mental health laws in the country. The law requires:[1]
- •The State Board of Education to adopt a school-based mental health policy with minimum requirements for mental health plans and a model mental health training program and suicide risk referral protocol.
- •Every K-12 public school unit to adopt and implement a plan for promoting student mental health and well-being that includes a mental health training program and suicide risk referral protocol.
- •The training program must address: youth mental health, suicide prevention, substance abuse, sexual abuse prevention, sex trafficking prevention, teenage dating violence, and guidelines on the identification of students at risk of suicide.[1]
Mental Health Training Requirements
The law sets specific training obligations:[1]
6 hours
Initial Training
Within the first six months of employment for school personnel (teachers, instructional support personnel, principals, and assistant principals).
2 hours
Annual Training
Every year thereafter. These are not one-time obligations. Every year, school personnel must complete mental health training.
State Board Policy SHLT-003
In November 2020, the NC State Board of Education adopted Policy SHLT-003, which operationalizes Session Law 2020-7. The policy requires each K-12 public school unit to adopt and implement a plan for promoting student mental health and well-being and for assessing and improving the effectiveness of supports for mental and social-emotional health and substance use needs of students and staff.[2]
The policy explicitly connects school mental health to social-emotional learning, encouraging PSUs to utilize the NC Healthful Living Essential Standards, Guidance Essential Standards, and CASEL Core Competencies resources to support integration of mental and social-emotional wellness and prevention into academic instruction.[3]
Session Law 2021-7: In-Person SEL Supports Required
In April 2021, the North Carolina General Assembly passed Session Law 2021-7, which required schools to provide “in-person social-emotional learning supports for all students.”[4]
“In-person social-emotional learning supports for all students”
— Session Law 2021-7 (HB 82), North Carolina General Assembly
This is explicit. The legislature used the words “social-emotional learning” and specified “for all students.” Not optional. Not recommended. Required.
The SEL and School Mental Health Improvement Plan
What Every PSU Must Submit
Every public school unit in North Carolina must submit an SEL and School Mental Health Improvement Plan. Starting with all 2025 submissions, a new required template must be used. The plan must address:[5]
Data and Needs Assessment
What data did the PSU use to determine its strengths and needs? Examples include FAM-S, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, School Health Services Report, Healthy Active Children Report, school discipline data, and district report cards.
Existing SEL and Mental Health Prevention Initiatives
What instruction, curriculum, and environmental supports does the PSU currently have in place? Examples listed in the template include MTSS, trauma-informed schools, restorative practices, character education, the Whole School Whole Community Whole Child framework, and bullying prevention.
Description by Grade Band
The plan must describe efforts at the elementary, middle, and high school levels separately.
This means every district in North Carolina is expected to document what it is doing for social-emotional learning and school mental health at the elementary level. A school that has no structured SEL instruction has a gap in its improvement plan.
Healthful Living Essential Standards
What the Standards Include
North Carolina's Healthful Living Essential Standards serve as the state's health education framework. The 2024 standards, approved by the NC State Board of Education, organize health education into five strands:[6]
MEH
Mental & Emotional Health
ICHR
Interpersonal Communication
ANCOD
Alcohol, Nicotine, Cannabis
PCH
Personal & Consumer Health
NPA
Nutrition & Physical Activity
Two of these five strands, Mental and Emotional Health and Interpersonal Communications and Healthy Relationships, are directly social-emotional in content.
Social-Emotional Content in Elementary Standards
The Healthful Living standards build social-emotional competencies progressively across elementary grade levels:[6][7]
Mental and Emotional Health (MEH)
Students explore individual character strengths that contribute to mental wellness. They identify personal positive and negative stressors. They explore and apply stress management strategies. They identify sources of grief and loss and learn to seek appropriate resources. They explain how self-control is a valuable tool in avoiding health risks.
Interpersonal Communications and Relationships (ICHR)
Students interpret facial expressions and posture to identify emotions and empathy. They recognize situations that might lead to violence. They apply appropriate strategies for conflict resolution. They explain the impact of self-direction, initiative, and self-control on interpersonal relationships. They use cooperation and communication skills to achieve common goals.
Healthful Living to CASEL Alignment
| NC Healthful Living Strand | CASEL Competency |
|---|---|
| Mental and Emotional Health (character strengths, stress, self-control) | Self-Awareness + Self-Management |
| Interpersonal Communications (empathy, conflict resolution, cooperation) | Relationship Skills + Social Awareness |
| Decision-Making (structured models, consequences) | Responsible Decision-Making |
| Goal Setting (planning, monitoring progress) | Self-Management |
NCDPI's SEL-Healthful Living Crosswalk
NCDPI has formally mapped the five CASEL core competencies to the Healthful Living objectives and instruction through a crosswalk document. This crosswalk is designed to show how SEL competencies align to the health education standards and to support integration of SEL into the Healthful Living curriculum.[8]
A separate set of crosswalk documents maps SEL competencies to the NC Standard Course of Study across all content areas, not just Healthful Living. NCDPI's position is that social-emotional learning can and should be integrated across the curriculum.[9] For elementary schools, this means NCDPI expects SEL to be woven into instruction broadly, with Healthful Living as the primary curricular home for explicit social-emotional skill building.
The NC SEL Implementation Team
NCDPI maintains a dedicated Social and Emotional Learning Implementation Team that works to support statewide implementation of SEL in all North Carolina public schools. The team's work is framed within the state's strategic plan, “Achieving Educational Excellence: 2025-2030 Strategic Plan for North Carolina Public Schools.”[10] The SEL Implementation Team provides resources, professional learning, and guidance for districts. The existence of a dedicated state-level team signals that SEL is not a peripheral initiative in North Carolina but a core component of the state's educational strategy.
Bullying Prevention
The School Violence Prevention Act
North Carolina's School Violence Prevention Act (N.C.G.S. §115C, Article 29C) requires every local school administrative unit to adopt a policy prohibiting bullying or harassing behavior. The policy must include:[11]
- •A definition of bullying or harassing behavior
- •A description of expected behavior for students and employees
- •Consequences and remedial action for violations
- •Procedures for reporting and investigation
- •Anti-retaliation protections
- •Dissemination requirements
Schools must develop and implement methods and strategies for promoting environments free of bullying or harassing behavior.[11] The connection to social-emotional instruction is direct: students who have been taught empathy, conflict resolution, self-control, kindness, and communication skills through structured curriculum are less likely to engage in bullying and more likely to report it. A curriculum that teaches these skills directly serves the prevention mandate.
School Counseling
Guidance Essential Standards
North Carolina's Guidance Essential Standards support the personal, social, educational, and career development of students. NCDPI has created a crosswalk between the Healthful Living and Guidance Essential Standards, demonstrating how classroom-based instruction and school counseling programming address complementary student outcomes.[4] For elementary schools, coordinating your character education or SEL curriculum with your school counselor's programming ensures consistent language, shared competencies, and a coherent student experience.
How to Align Your Elementary Program With North Carolina's Requirements
Step 1: Build Your SEL/SMH Improvement Plan Foundation
Every PSU must submit an SEL and School Mental Health Improvement Plan. Your plan must describe your existing elementary-level SEL prevention initiatives through instruction, curriculum, and environment. A comprehensive scope and sequence that covers all five CASEL competencies across 40 weeks provides the curricular documentation your plan requires.
Step 2: Address Healthful Living Standards
Document how your curriculum addresses the Mental and Emotional Health (MEH) and Interpersonal Communications and Healthy Relationships (ICHR) strands at every elementary grade level. A CASEL-aligned curriculum addresses every social-emotional strand in the Healthful Living standards.
Step 3: Align With the SEL-Healthful Living Crosswalk
NCDPI has mapped CASEL competencies to Healthful Living objectives. Use this crosswalk to demonstrate how your curriculum addresses both sets of expectations. Document the alignment for your improvement plan.
Step 4: Support the Mental Health Training Program
Your staff receives six hours of initial mental health training and two hours annually thereafter. Your students need instruction that complements what adults are learning. When teachers are trained to recognize mental health warning signs and students are taught emotional regulation, self-awareness, and help-seeking skills, the two efforts reinforce each other.
Step 5: Connect to Bullying Prevention
Document how your social-emotional instruction supports the School Violence Prevention Act's requirement to develop and implement prevention strategies. A curriculum that teaches empathy, conflict resolution, respect, and communication skills is an evidence-based approach to promoting the bully-free environment the law requires.
Step 6: Coordinate With School Counseling
Align classroom-based instruction with the Guidance Essential Standards. Use the NCDPI Healthful Living and Guidance Essential Standards crosswalk to ensure your classroom curriculum and counseling program reinforce each other rather than operating in parallel.
Communicating With North Carolina Parents
Reference the State's Commitment
North Carolina has invested more heavily in school-based mental health and SEL infrastructure than most states. When communicating with parents: “North Carolina law requires every school to have a plan for promoting student mental health and well-being. Our school's SEL program is part of that plan. Students learn to manage emotions, resolve conflicts, set goals, make responsible decisions, and build healthy relationships through structured weekly lessons.”
Use Practical Language
Describe what students learn in concrete terms: “Students learn to identify and manage their emotions, resolve disagreements peacefully, set and work toward goals, make responsible decisions, recognize when they or a peer needs help, and communicate effectively with others. These are life skills the state expects schools to develop.”
Connect to the Healthful Living Standards
Parents understand that health education is a core part of school. Mental and emotional health is a named strand within North Carolina's Healthful Living standards, just like nutrition and physical activity. Frame social-emotional instruction the same way: as a required component of the health education their children are expected to receive.
Choosing a Curriculum for North Carolina Schools
When selecting social-emotional and character education curriculum for your North Carolina elementary school, verify that the program:
- ✓Aligns with Healthful Living Essential Standards. The MEH and ICHR strands contain the social-emotional expectations your school must address at every elementary grade level.
- ✓Supports your SEL/SMH Improvement Plan. Every PSU submits this plan annually. Your curriculum provides the instructional component your plan must document.
- ✓Maps to CASEL competencies. NCDPI uses CASEL's framework in its crosswalk documents. A CASEL-aligned curriculum aligns directly with the state's implementation approach.
- ✓Provides grade-band differentiation. The Healthful Living standards build in complexity across grades. Programs that provide distinct content for upper elementary match this developmental progression.
- ✓Offers a full-year scope and sequence. North Carolina's SEL improvement plan expects sustained, documented instruction. A program that provides 40 weeks of sequenced instruction demonstrates the systematic approach the state values.
- ✓Supports evidence-based bullying prevention. The School Violence Prevention Act requires prevention strategies. Your curriculum should teach empathy, communication, conflict resolution, and respect.
- ✓Complements mental health training. Staff trained in youth mental health need content that teaches students coping, communication, and self-management skills. Your curriculum should build emotional regulation and help-seeking skills.
- ✓Requires no devices or student accounts. Device-free, teacher-led programs eliminate data privacy concerns and preserve the shared classroom experience.
- ✓Supports bilingual learners. North Carolina's growing multilingual population benefits from curriculum available in English and Spanish.
- ✓Requires minimal prep. North Carolina teachers navigate extensive testing, documentation, and instructional demands. Programs that provide ready-to-use weekly lessons are more likely to be implemented consistently.
What to Avoid
Treating the SEL/SMH Improvement Plan as a compliance document
The annual plan is not a form to fill out in June and forget. It is a blueprint for how your school supports students' social-emotional and mental health needs. Schools that treat the plan as a documentation exercise without implementing the instruction it describes are meeting the reporting requirement without serving students.
Operating without a Tier 1 social-emotional curriculum
North Carolina's MTSS guidance, Healthful Living standards, and SEL improvement plan requirements all point toward structured, universal social-emotional instruction for all students. A school that relies solely on school counselor-led small groups and reactive interventions without a classroom-based Tier 1 curriculum has an incomplete system. The counselor cannot reach every student. The curriculum can.
Ignoring the Healthful Living crosswalks
NCDPI has created formal crosswalk documents mapping SEL competencies to the Standard Course of Study. These crosswalks represent the state's expectation for how SEL integrates into instruction. Schools that implement SEL as a standalone add-on disconnected from the Standard Course of Study are missing the integration approach the state promotes.
Waiting for standalone SEL standards
North Carolina may or may not adopt formal K-12 SEL standards. The absence of standards labeled “SEL” does not mean the absence of expectations. Session Law 2020-7, SHLT-003, Session Law 2021-7, the Healthful Living Essential Standards, the SEL Implementation Team, the required improvement plans, and the CASEL crosswalk documents collectively create obligations that function identically to what formal SEL standards would require.[12]
Final Thoughts
North Carolina has built one of the most developed state-level SEL infrastructure systems in the country. The School-Based Mental Health law mandates training and planning. The Healthful Living Essential Standards require instruction in mental and emotional health and interpersonal communication at every grade level. Session Law 2021-7 explicitly requires in-person social-emotional learning supports for all students. Every public school unit must submit an annual SEL and School Mental Health Improvement Plan. NCDPI maintains a dedicated SEL Implementation Team. And formal crosswalk documents map CASEL competencies to the Standard Course of Study.
No document is titled “NC K-12 SEL Standards.” But the aggregate effect of the legislation, policy, standards, and infrastructure creates a framework that is functionally equivalent and, in some ways, more actionable than formal standards alone would be.
For North Carolina elementary schools, the path forward is practical: choose a program that aligns with the Healthful Living Essential Standards, maps to CASEL competencies through the state's crosswalk framework, provides the structured instruction and documentation your SEL/SMH Improvement Plan requires, and delivers social-emotional skills to every student, every week, all year. The infrastructure exists. The expectations are documented. The students need the skills. Start there.
References
- North Carolina General Assembly. Session Law 2020-7 (SB 476). School-Based Mental Health. https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2019/Bills/Senate/PDF/S476v6.pdf
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. FAQ: State Board of Education Policy SHLT-003. https://dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/classroom-resources/academic-standards/programs-and-initiatives/nc-healthy-schools/school-mental-health-policy/faq
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Model Training Plan. https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/classroom-resources/k-12-standards-curriculum-and-instruction/programs-and-initiatives/nc-healthy-schools/school-mental-health-policy/model-training-plan
- Henderson County Public Schools. Social Emotional Learning and School Mental Health Improvement Plans. https://www.hendersoncountypublicschoolsnc.org/student-services/social-emotional-learning-and-school-mental-health-improvement-plans/
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Plan Components: PSU Improvement Plan for SEL and School Mental Health. https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/classroom-resources/office-teaching-and-learning/programs-and-initiatives/nc-healthy-schools/school-mental-health-policy/plan-components
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 2024 Health Education Essential Standards K-9. https://www.poehealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NC-DPI-2024-Health-Education-Essential-Standards.pdf
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 2012 Health Education Essential Standards Grades 3-5. https://www.commonplanner.com/standards/north-carolina-54ccc3a7/health-education
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Standard Course of Study and Supporting Resources: Healthful Living. https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/classroom-resources/office-teaching-and-learning/standard-course-study/healthful-living/standard-course-study-supporting-resources
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NCSCOS and Social and Emotional Learning Alignment. https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/districts-schools-support/nc-social-emotional-learning/ncscos-social-and-emotional-learning-alignment
- North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NC Social and Emotional Learning. https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/districts-schools-support/nc-social-and-emotional-learning
- North Carolina General Statutes, §115C-407.15 et seq. School Violence Prevention Act. https://law.justia.com/codes/north-carolina/2021/chapter-115c/article-29c/section-115c-407-16/
- Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405-432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
- Cipriano, C., Strambler, M. J., Naples, L. H., et al. (2023). The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions. Child Development, 94(5), 1181-1204. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13968
Social-Emotional Learning for North Carolina Schools
Be The Buffalo delivers the social-emotional instruction that North Carolina's Healthful Living standards, school mental health law, and SEL improvement plan requirements all expect. 40 weeks of K-5 curriculum covering emotional regulation, conflict resolution, decision-making, goal setting, empathy, self-awareness, and relationship skills.
Aligned to CASEL competencies and designed to function as your Tier 1 social-emotional instruction. Interactive projector activities, original songs, stories, printable worksheets, and teacher guides. Bilingual English and Spanish. No student accounts. No devices. No prep.
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