Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: The 2020 Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 753 directing the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to develop guidance standards for social emotional learning (SEL) for all public students in grades Kindergarten through 12 in the Commonwealth. The Virginia Social Emotional Learning Standards were developed in collaboration with an SEL Advisory Committee, composed of educators, community leaders, agency personnel, and parents. The Virginia SEL Standards are aligned with the Profile of a Virginia Graduate and centered in equity. This intentional focus allows the Standards to explicitly teach the skills needed to be “life ready” and to create more equitable learning environments.

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5/23/21 9:34 am

Commenter: Public school parent/ Psychologist

SEL is not the way to support students of families/ read comment

I encourage you to read the SEL document completely. Written into the language is a systematic drive to teach children what groups they belong to, how those groups differ, what those groups have and don’t, and what you will be capable of or limited to based on your group. That is the definition of bias and racism. The very concepts SEL pretends to be against. It is wrong to label individuals to a group and then presume attributes and weaknesses for the whole group. SEL will isolate some children deemed privileged and capable by their group identification; and limit other children deemed disadvantaged and less capable by their group identification. SEL limits and takes the responsibility and motivation for working hard and being able to succeed off of the child and the parent. Please do not move forward with SEL.

CommentID: 98643