A practical guide for Utah educators and administrators on the state's Health Education standards (including the Mental and Emotional Health strand), the Portrait of a Graduate's wellness competency, and how social-emotional skills fit into Utah's educational framework.
Utah does not have standalone SEL standards. It does have required Health Education Core Standards that include a Mental and Emotional Health strand at every grade level from kindergarten through high school. It has a Portrait of a Graduate that defines wellness, including self-awareness, self-advocacy, and social-emotional well-being, as a core competency for every Utah student. And it has a new Teaching Self-Government Skills pilot program that trains teachers and students in “personal self-government communication and problem solving practices.”[1][2][3]
The skills are there. The requirements are there. The language is Utah's own.
For Utah elementary schools, understanding what the state expects means looking at three intersecting frameworks: the Health Education Core Standards (required), the Portrait of a Graduate (aspirational), and the emerging self-government skills approach (pilot). This guide explains each one and how to build a program that serves your students while aligning with Utah's expectations and values.
Utah's Health Education Core Standards: Where Social-Emotional Skills Live
The Mental and Emotional Health Strand
Utah's Health Education Core Standards, revised in 2026, are required instruction for all Utah students K-12. The standards are organized into six strands, and the second strand, Mental and Emotional Health (MEH), directly addresses social-emotional skills at every elementary grade level.[4]
USBE describes this strand clearly: “Mental and Emotional Health teaches students how to advocate for the mental and emotional health of self and others. Strategies to help students manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are key components of this strand.”[4]
Elementary MEH Standards by Grade
Kindergarten
Practice expressing emotions. Define what bullying is and is not. Demonstrate what to say and do if someone is bullying or bothering oneself or others.[4]
Grade 1
Identify healthy ways to express emotions. Practice strategies for managing feelings. Describe what it means to be a good friend. Identify trusted adults who can help.[4]
Grade 2
Describe how emotions change. Practice communication skills for expressing needs. Identify strategies for managing stress and strong emotions.[4]
Grade 3
Identify healthy coping strategies for disappointment, grief, sadness, and loss. Practice goal-setting, communication, and relationship skills. Learn how to cope with emotions and stress.[5]
Grade 4
Explore how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected. Practice strategies for managing anger and frustration. Describe healthy ways to express care and respect for others.[4]
Grade 5
Practice a variety of stress management techniques. Demonstrate how to obtain and offer assistance to enhance health. Explain the changes during puberty and healthy ways to manage them. Discuss how to say no, leave a situation, and identify trusted adults when feeling uncomfortable or unsafe.[6]
How MEH Complexity Builds K-5
Each grade builds on the prior year — isolated lessons cannot replicate this progression
The Health Foundations Strand
The first strand, Health Foundations and Protective Factors of Healthy Self (HF), provides additional social-emotional content. USBE describes protective factors as “attributes such as skills, strengths, or coping strategies which increase the health and well-being of children” that “help people deal more effectively with stress, peer-pressure, and other potentially harmful situations.”[4]
This strand includes SMART goal setting, resiliency skills, decision-making, and communication skills, all of which map directly to CASEL competencies.
How the Health Standards Map to CASEL
| Utah Health Education Content | CASEL Competency |
|---|---|
| Identify and express emotions | Self-Awareness |
| Manage thoughts, feelings, and behaviors | Self-Management |
| Communication and relationship skills | Relationship Skills |
| Stress management, coping strategies | Self-Management |
| Goal setting (SMART goals) | Self-Management |
| Bully prevention, safety | Responsible Decision-Making |
| Protective factors, resiliency | Self-Management |
| Advocacy for self and others | Social Awareness + Relationship Skills |
A CASEL-aligned curriculum addresses every social-emotional element in Utah's Health Education Core Standards while building the broader competency framework.
Utah's Portrait of a Graduate
The Wellness Competency
Utah's Portrait of a Graduate, adopted in 2019, defines the competencies every Utah student should develop by graduation. The “Wellness” competency states:[2]
“Utah graduates develop self-awareness, self-advocacy skills, and the knowledge to maintain healthy lifestyles that provide balance in life and improve physical, mental, social, and emotional well-being.”
The Portrait of a Graduate includes P-20 Competency Exemplars at every grade band (Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) that describe what the Wellness competency looks like at each developmental level:[2]
Pre-K
Students identify emotions, recognize physical and social needs, ask for help, and participate in guided wellness activities.
K-2
Students practice identifying and expressing emotions. Learn to use “I feel” statements to communicate effectively. Practice self-advocacy through various scenarios.
3-5
Students set personal wellness goals, practice stress management, and begin to recognize how mental, physical, and social health interconnect.
What This Means
The Portrait of a Graduate is aspirational rather than regulatory, but it carries institutional weight. It defines what USBE considers a well-prepared student, and self-awareness, self-advocacy, and social-emotional well-being are explicitly included. Schools and districts that align their programming with the Portrait of a Graduate can point to the state's own framework as the rationale for social-emotional instruction.
The Teaching Self-Government Skills Pilot
What the Legislation Created
Beginning May 1, 2025, Utah created a three-year pilot program within the Teacher and Student Success Program called the Teaching Self-Government Skills for Success, Classroom Communication, and Discipline Framework Pilot Program.[1]
The pilot trains school faculty and students in personal self-government communication and problem-solving practices. Participation is voluntary. LEAs and schools choose whether to participate. USBE is required to create the training course, which must include appropriate approaches to student behavior and discipline, communication and conflict resolution strategies, and practices consistent with principles of personal responsibility, agency, and constructive communication.[1]
What “Self-Government” Means
Utah's use of “self-government” rather than “social-emotional learning” is a deliberate language choice that reflects the state's cultural and political context. The underlying skills are the same: self-awareness, self-regulation, communication, problem solving, and responsible decision-making. The framing emphasizes personal agency and individual responsibility, which aligns with Utah's cultural values around self-reliance and personal accountability.
For educators, the practical implication is straightforward: the skills your students need are the same regardless of what they are called. A comprehensive SEL curriculum that builds self-management, communication, and problem-solving skills addresses the self-government skills the pilot describes.
Student Mental Health Support
HB 413 (2024): Student Mental Health Amendments
House Bill 413, passed in 2024, created a framework for school-based mental health screening. LEAs choose annually whether to participate in the screening program. Participating LEAs administer approved mental health screening and connect students to support services. Non-participating LEAs are not required to screen but are still expected to address student mental health through other means.[7]
School Behavioral Health Toolkit
USBE and the Utah Department of Health and Human Services partnered to create Utah's School Behavioral Health Toolkit, providing resources for addressing mental and emotional wellness for school-aged children.[7]
Special Education Advisory Panel Recommendations
In 2020, the Utah Special Education Advisory Panel issued a formal memorandum to USBE recommending SEL implementation for students with disabilities. The panel's recommendations included:[8]
- Providing support for MTSS implementation with trauma-informed SEL
- Ensuring students with disabilities have access to SEL in the least restrictive environment
- Encouraging the creation of wellness rooms as a Tier 1 resource for emotional regulation
- Training paraeducators and mental health professionals to support students' emotional regulation through instruction
These recommendations signal institutional recognition, even within Utah's more cautious approach to SEL, that social-emotional skill development is essential, particularly for students with disabilities.
How to Align Your Elementary Program With Utah's Framework
Step 1: Address the Required Health Education MEH Standards
The Mental and Emotional Health strand is required at every elementary grade level. Document how your instruction addresses each grade's MEH standards: emotional expression (K-1), stress management (2-3), emotional and behavioral self-management (4-5), bully prevention (K-5), and trusted adult identification (K-5).[4]
A comprehensive scope and sequence that covers emotional regulation, conflict resolution, goal setting, communication skills, and stress management across 40 weeks covers the MEH strand comprehensively while building skills beyond the minimum.
Step 2: Connect to the Portrait of a Graduate
Document how your instruction supports the Wellness competency: self-awareness, self-advocacy, and social-emotional well-being. The P-20 Competency Exemplars provide specific descriptions of what these skills look like at K-2 and 3-5, giving you a framework for tracking student development.
Step 3: Build Protective Factors
Utah's Health Foundations strand emphasizes protective factors: skills, strengths, and coping strategies that increase wellbeing and help students deal with stress and peer pressure. Document how your SEL curriculum builds these factors through self-regulation, perseverance, growth mindset, and relationship skills.
Step 4: Support School Safety
Utah's Health Education standards include a Safety and Disease Prevention strand that addresses emergency procedures, personal safety, and reporting unsafe situations.[5] SEL instruction that connects emotional regulation, responsible decision-making, and trusted adult identification to safety preparedness serves both the MEH strand and the Safety strand simultaneously.
Step 5: Embed in MTSS
Position your social-emotional instruction within your school's MTSS framework:
Tier 1
Universal instruction delivered weekly to all students, addressing the Health Education MEH standards and building broader social-emotional competencies.
Tier 2
Targeted small-group support for students needing additional practice with specific skills.
Tier 3
Individualized intervention for students with significant needs, including IEP-aligned goals, consistent with the USEAP's 2020 recommendations.
Communicating With Utah Parents and Communities
What to Call It: A Terminology Guide
| CASEL Term | Utah Equivalent | What to Say to Parents |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Management | Self-Government Skills | “We teach students to manage themselves” |
| Self-Awareness | Mental & Emotional Health | “Students learn to understand their own emotions” |
| Social Awareness | Health Foundations / Wellness | “We build respect and understanding” |
| Relationship Skills | Communication & Conflict Resolution | “Students practice getting along and solving problems” |
| Responsible Decision-Making | Personal Responsibility | “We teach children to make good choices” |
Same skills, different framing — use language that resonates with Utah families
Use Utah's Language
Utah parents broadly support teaching children to manage emotions, communicate effectively, set goals, and make responsible decisions. Using Utah's own terminology strengthens that support:
“Our school teaches the Mental and Emotional Health standards required by Utah's Health Education Core Standards. Students learn to express emotions healthily, manage stress, set goals, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”
“Utah's Portrait of a Graduate defines Wellness as a core competency for every student. Our program builds the self-awareness, self-advocacy, and coping skills the Portrait describes.”
Frame as Personal Responsibility and Self-Government
Utah's culture values personal agency, self-reliance, and individual responsibility. Framing social-emotional instruction through this lens aligns with community values:
“We teach students to govern themselves: to manage their own emotions, solve their own problems, set their own goals, and take responsibility for their own choices.”
Be Transparent
Share your curriculum materials. Invite parents to review lessons. Provide your scope and sequence. Utah families value knowing what their children are learning, and transparency prevents the concerns that arise from uncertainty.
Reference the Standards
When asked why you teach social-emotional skills, the answer is grounded in state standards: “Utah's Health Education Core Standards require instruction in Mental and Emotional Health at every grade level. Our program addresses these required standards while building the skills Utah's Portrait of a Graduate describes.”
Choosing a Curriculum for Utah Schools
When selecting curriculum for your Utah elementary school, verify that the program:
Addresses the Health Education MEH standards
Emotional expression, stress management, coping strategies, communication, goal setting, and bully prevention must be covered at every elementary grade level. These are required standards.
Aligns with the Portrait of a Graduate Wellness competency
Self-awareness, self-advocacy, and social-emotional well-being should be explicitly addressed.
Provides grade-band differentiation
Utah's Health Education standards specify different expectations at each grade level. Your curriculum should match this developmental progression.
Offers a full-year scope and sequence
The developmental progression Utah's standards describe requires sustained, weekly instruction across the school year.
Builds protective factors
Utah's Health Foundations strand emphasizes resiliency, goal setting, and coping skills as protective factors. Programs that build these factors serve the state's prevention-focused framework.
Emphasizes personal responsibility and agency
Utah's cultural context values self-governance. Programs that teach students to manage themselves, solve their own problems, and take ownership of their choices align with this value.
Supports bilingual learners
Utah's growing multilingual population benefits from bilingual English and Spanish curriculum.
Requires no student accounts or devices
Device-free, teacher-led programs eliminate data privacy concerns and work in schools with limited technology infrastructure.
Connects to school safety
Utah's Safety and Disease Prevention standards overlap with social-emotional instruction. Programs that bridge both serve multiple required standards.
Requires minimal prep
Ready-to-use weekly lessons support consistent implementation without adding teacher burden.
What to Avoid
Assuming Utah does not expect social-emotional instruction
The Health Education MEH standards are required at every grade level. The Portrait of a Graduate includes Wellness as a core competency. The Self-Government Skills pilot is training teachers in communication and problem-solving. Utah expects these skills to be taught. The language differs from other states, but the substance does not.
Using terminology that creates unnecessary friction
Utah has organized opposition to the term “SEL.” The underlying skills (managing emotions, setting goals, resolving conflicts, making responsible decisions) have universal support. Using Utah's own language (mental and emotional health, protective factors, self-government, wellness) communicates the same skills without triggering political reactions.
Treating health education as separate from social-emotional instruction
Utah's Health Education standards include substantial social-emotional content. A comprehensive SEL curriculum can address the MEH standards as part of health education, which means social-emotional instruction does not need a separate block. It fits within required health education time.
Ignoring the USEAP recommendations for students with disabilities
The Special Education Advisory Panel formally recommended SEL implementation for students with disabilities. Schools that implement social-emotional instruction for general education students but exclude students with disabilities are missing the population the panel identified as most in need.
Final Thoughts
Utah's approach to social-emotional instruction reflects the state's values: personal responsibility, self-governance, family involvement, and local control. The state does not mandate SEL by name. It requires Health Education standards that include mental and emotional health content at every grade level, defines Wellness as a core competency in the Portrait of a Graduate, and is piloting self-government skills training for teachers and students.
For Utah elementary schools, the practical path involves choosing a program that addresses the required Health Education MEH standards, aligns with the Portrait of a Graduate's Wellness competency, builds protective factors and resiliency, and describes its content in terms Utah families support: teaching students to govern themselves, manage their own emotions, solve their own problems, and take responsibility for their own choices.
The standards require the skills. The Portrait of a Graduate names them. The self-government pilot signals the state's direction. And the students need them. The rest is implementation.
References
- Utah Parent Center. (2024). Social & Emotional Learning in Education. https://utahparentcenter.org/sel-in-education/
- Utah State Board of Education. (2021). P-20 Competency Exemplars: Utah Talent MAP. https://schools.utah.gov/portraitgraduate/UtahTalentMap.pdf
- Utah State Board of Education. (2019). Utah's Portrait of a Graduate. https://schools.utah.gov/portraitgraduate
- Utah State Board of Education. (2026). Utah Core State Standards for Health Education. https://schools.utah.gov/curr/health/HealthUtahCoreStateStandards.pdf
- Utah Education Network. (n.d.). Health education K-5 core standards. https://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=7050
- Utah Education Network. (n.d.). Health education: Grade 5. https://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=7050
- Utah State Board of Education. (n.d.). Attending to school-based mental health. https://schools.utah.gov/schoolsafetyandstudentservices/mentalhealth
- Utah Department of Health and Human Services. (2020). Annual Performance Report (APR) 2020. https://familyhealth.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/Office_EC/pdf/BabyWatch/APR-2020C-UT.pdf
- 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
Build Self-Government Skills for Utah Students
Be The Buffalo teaches students to manage emotions, set goals, solve problems, resolve conflicts, and take responsibility for their choices through 40 weeks of K-5 curriculum.
Interactive projector activities, original songs, stories, printable worksheets, and teacher guides. Bilingual English and Spanish. No student accounts. No devices. No prep.
Sign Up FreeRelated Resources
Arizona SEL Requirements
How Arizona's SEL competencies, mental health instruction mandate, and health education standards create expectations for elementary schools.
Nevada SEL Requirements
What Nevada schools are expected to teach as K-12 SEL standards move from pilot to adoption.
Best Character Education Curriculum
What to look for in a K-5 program that combines character traits with social-emotional skills.