Wellbeing, Work Climate, and Levers of Transformation for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Implementation among California Educational Leaders in Spring 2025

CalHOPE Student Support was established as an effort to build capacity for the implementation of SEL in K-12 public schools across all counties in the state of California. As part of CalHOPE, County Offices of Education (COEs) work closely with focal schools and districts to support them in sustainable and equitable SEL implementation. To capture the state of SEL in California as of Spring 2025, 281 educational leaders (73% non-Hispanic White, 82% female) from 53 counties (90 COE leaders, 47 district office leaders, 144 school leaders) reported on their own wellbeing, conditions associated with their wellbeing (e.g., workplace climate), and their work to engage levers of SEL system transformation. This final report builds on prior reports by offering summative insights about trends that occurred from the beginning to the end of the CalHOPE data collection period (Fall 2023 to Spring 2025) for three educational settings (COE, district, school). In comparing the first (Fall 2023) and last (Spring 2025) time points for data collection in all three educational settings, we found that educational leaders consistently reported strong well-being and climate, and that any growth observed in these areas was not statistically significant. We did see statistically significant improvement in partnership activities at the COE and school levels, in SEL knowledge at the district and school levels, in SEL skills at the district and school levels, and in structures and routines at the district and school levels. Overall, this suggests that prior successes were sustained or experiencing small growth, with several new and noteworthy successes at the school and district levels. This final survey also asked leaders to reflect on their experience with CalHOPE over the past two years. Most leaders agreed that participation in CalHOPE benefited them personally/professionally, and that participation also benefited educators, students, and their schools or regions more broadly. Finally, looking across all time points of data from Summer 2023 through Spring 2025 (five time points total), several trends emerged. Observation #1: Positive SEL conditions at the COE level were maintained throughout the two school years (2023-2025). Observation #2: At the district and school levels, some conditions improved steadily over time: partnership activities, knowledge, and skills. Observation #3: At the district and school levels, some conditions were stronger in spring vs. fall terms: supports received and provided, and structures and routines. Altogether, these trends bode well for CalHOPE’s success in setting the stage for continued improvement in SEL implementation. The oft-cited goal of CalHOPE was to “build the capacity of the capacity builders” – developing the beliefs, knowledge, skills, and confidence of SEL implementation leaders to advance SEL statewide. The sizable and statistically significant improvement of SEL implementation leaders’ capacities, reported here, suggests CalHOPE achieved this goal.