Safe and Supportive Learning
Environments Essentials

Virtual Professional Learning Series

The California Center for School Climate (CCSC), a project of the California Department of Education operated by WestEd, provides school climate and data use support and trainings at NO COST to the LEAs in California. CCSC is currently offering Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (SSLE) Essentials, a professional learning series for K-12 staff and administrators. The series focuses on many topics that may be familiar, such as trauma-informed, restorative, and culturally responsive practices; social and emotional learning (SEL); school climate; and related whole-person topics, with attention to equity throughout.

The SSLE Essentials lead educators and education leaders to integrate a broad cluster of research-based content and culturally responsive practices that inherently work together to foster safe and supportive learning environments. Participants develop the mindsets, knowledge, and capacity needed to infuse these practices into the everyday instruction and experiences of their schools, districts, and agencies.

What You Will Learn

With the facilitation, coaching, and technical assistance from our multidisciplinary and highly skilled team, we will help you learn how to:

• Reflect on and adapt practices to shift values, attitudes, mindsets, biases and beliefs on personal/individual, interpersonal/collective and structural/systemic levels.
• Understand sustainable systems and structures to promote effective implementation, scale-up, and ongoing improvement.
• Lead improvement efforts that meaningfully engage staff, students, and families as equal partners to co-create equitable conditions for learning.

Who Will Benefit

• K-12 school district superintendents and administrators
• Principals and site administrators
• Teacher leaders, behavior specialists, intervention coordinators
• Counselors, school psychologists, and mental health professionals

Principles and Elements

Comprising a practical and manageable scope and sequence for learning and application, the SSLE Essentials series includes the following principles and elements:

• Offers collaborative and experiential learning with opportunities for practice and reflection with peers
• Provides educator-friendly language that removes stigma and simplifies similar or overlapping concepts
• Brings together the most important or “essential” pieces of the research, frameworks, practices, and lenses that help create and sustain safe and supportive learning environments

Sessions are 2 hours each.

K–12 Staff attend SSLE Essentials 1–8: 16 hours (8 sessions) synchronous learning time plus up to 1 hour of asynchronous work between each session

K–12 Administrators and Leaders attend SSLE Essentials 1–10: 20 hours (10 sessions) synchronous learning time plus up to 1 hour of asynchronous work between each session

Two additional sessions (SSLE Essentials 9 & 10) for administrators and leaders focus on sustainable systems and structures to support effective implementation, scale-up, and ongoing improvement

Synchronous learning occurs via Zoom. Asynchronous practice and reflection occurs via Canvas Learning Management System between sessions.

Learning Sequence

The SSLE Essentials Virtual Professional Learning Series contains 8 Essentials for school/district staff (SSLE Essentials 1–8) and an additional 2 Essentials (SSLE Essentials 9–10) for administrators and leaders.

Session	Themes/Topics/Focus
Essential 1 – Together We Will: Placing Our Work Into Context	Understanding the SSLE Essentials; education paradigms; technical vs. adaptive work; systems and context
Essential 2 – How Brain Science Informs Teaching and Learning	Brain architecture and emotional regulation; window of tolerance; behavior as communication
Essential 3 – The Role of Self-Care and Bringing Our Whole Selves to Work	Signs of dysregulation in ourselves; self-care and brain science; getting and staying regulated; connection and belonging; mindsets
Essential 4 – Person–Context Interactions	Physical environments for student success; relationships; responding vs. reacting
Essential 5 – Person–Context Interactions, continued	Teaching and modeling SEL skills and strategies; building trust and safety
Essential 6 – Power, Culture, and Social Context	Culture and context; culturally responsive brain rules; social discipline window
Essential 7 – Voice, Agency, and Co-Creation	Student, staff, and family engagement; developmental assets; agency and shared decision-making
Essential 8 – Revisiting Our Journey and Looking Ahead	Personal and collective reflection; action planning; next steps and commitments
Essential 9 – Leadership and Systems Supports	Administrators/Leaders ONLY Adaptive leadership; implementation drivers (leadership); personal leadership goals
Essential 10 – Sustainability	Administrators/Leaders ONLY Implementation drivers (competency and organization); prioritizing actions and strategies; bringing the SSLE Essentials back to your site; next steps and commitments

For more information, email us at schoolclimate@wested.org.