SEL4CA Regions
San Diego
Regional Coordinators

Julie Johnston
Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships
Wayfinder
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Tracy Yates
CDE Social Emotional Learning Policy Strategist
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San Diego Regional Update
The nation’s schools were already struggling to meet students’ mental health needs when the pandemic hit. How can schools rise to meet students’ ballooning needs in that area as a massive school reopening gets underway?
To be sure, it will be difficult to balance mental health support with an equally massive academic recovery. But child development experts say it’s a balance schools must attempt to strike if they want students to regain their academic footing after an unprecedented year of disruptions, stress, and trauma.
An infusion of federal COVID-19 relief money will help, but how those funds are used will be pivotal. And experts say that schools cannot just focus on the students they know are in crisis; they must bolster supports for all students as well as staff members.
EducationWeek Article “Here’s What Schools Can Do”
Regional News

How San Diego’s Monarch School Helps Homeless Students Transform Their Futures
Monarch is the only public K-12 school in the country exclusively for homeless youth. Formed as a 501c3 nonprofit in 1999, the school is funded

Social-Emotional Learning Can Help Students Balance Mental, Physical and Social Needs
San Diego County school counselor Jessica Ley Nuñez knows that social-emotional learning works. And the research supports her. According to child development research from Loyola

I Wrote About a San Diego School in Need. Here’s What’s Happened Since, and How Readers Can Get Involved
Reporter Kristen Taketa wrote Perkins K-8, about a school where one-third of students are homeless and almost all are low-income. In response, staff and volunteers
Regional Professional Learning and Networking Opportunities
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